Star Ocean 3: The Black Lance
by Arcaile63
Summary: The crew are joined by a warrior whose mysterious past that just keeps getting more complicated as they get to know him. MariaXOC pairing. Review plz, open to suggestions. FINALLY UPDATED!
1. Prologue: The Warrior

_This is my first fanfiction, so please lend some constructive criticism and advices please!_

_(On a side note, some aspects of this story and characters are kind of based on Rurouni Kenshin, you'll see what I mean later)._

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

Prologue: The Warrior

Smoke and flames, sounds of gunshots, screams of pain, the once peaceful planet now resembled hell in every aspect. Citizens stampeded towards the nearest escape transports. Military personnels attempted to bring order in vain. Who could blame them? Death was so thick in the air that one could positively smell it, or perhaps it was the stench of burning corpses? Suddenly, a group of armed beings with white masks appeared and began charging towards the ships.

"Damn! It's the Vendeeni!" cried one soldier.

"Quickly! We must protect the refugees until they're off this planet!" yelled another.

The soldiers formed up so that the refugees were behind them, and opened fire. Explosions and screams filled the air, causing the already panicky people into a positive frenzy as they shoved one another, trying to get inside the ships.

"ARGH! MY ARM! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY ARM!" Screamed a soldier as he fell to the ground.

Sure enough, the spot where his arm should've been was blank, there was no trace of his arm, as if it had _evaporated. _

"Crap, they've got disrupter rifles! Everyone watch it!" One by one, the soldiers fell, many of them with various body parts, ranging from legs to portion of the head, missing.

The battle was soon over. The Vendeeni walked up towards the defeated soldiers, some of them heading towards the transport ship.

"Hehe... You pathetic Federation scums were no match for us ever since this war began, why won't you all surrender?" one of the Vendeeni jeered.

"Do what you will with us, but let the refugees go, they have nothing to do with this!" demanded one of the surviving Federation officer glaring up at the Vendeeni.

"'They have nothing to do with this'? HA! Surely you jest! By not accepting our rule and bowing down before us, those worms are all punishable by death... And we will be happy to carry out their sentence here and now." retorted the Vendeeni officer with a cruel grin.

"You son-of-a-!" the officer stopped in mid-sentence as a hole appeared on his forehead, and he toppled over.

"Commander!" cried one of the other prisoner.

"You should watch your language, heh." the Vendeeni officer said casually.

"You three! Round up the worms in that ship, we shall carry out the execution in the name of Vendeen!" The subordinates were happy to comply.

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"Heehee, hope I get to be on the firing squad. I've always wanted to try it" a Vendeeni soldier cackled.

"Just hope that you won't be part of the clean-up crew, Zeben, the stench is horrible." remarked another.

"Is it really that bad Pazwa?" asked the third.

"Are you kidding Rigeq? These federation scums are more disgusting than maggots!" Zeben replied.

"Oh well, let's just get this over with" sighed Pazwa as he was about to acess the nearest room.

"Besides, there will be plenty more opportunites to co-" Pazwa fell.

"The hell? Pazwa what's wrong?"

"Look!" Rigeq pointed.

A small dagger was lodged (the entire blade) in the fallen Vendeeni's neck.

"Where'd that come fro-" Zeben's head dropped to the floor.

"Wha, Zeben!" cried Rigeq in shock.

He heard a rustling noise behind him and quickly turned around, rifle raised. The tip of a something sharp was touching his throat. Rigeq gulped and looked at its owner. A figure wrapped in a dark-bluish cape stood before him, his face completely obscured by the shadow of his hood, save for strands of dark red hair that was visible.

"Who, who are you?" demanded Rigeq in a shaky voice.

The stranger flicked his wrist, and Rigeq's head landed on the floor, followed by his body.

"...The dead need not know" muttered the caped figure, as he started towards the ship's exit.

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"What's taking those three forever! I swear I'll put them in the clean-up crew burning corpses!" snarled the agitated Vendeeni commander.

The last of the Federation soldiers lay dead.

"Ah, there they are now! You three have some nerve keeping us waiting!"

Then he noticed that the emerging being was alone and definitely not one of his men.

"Aha, a volunteer target! Hey! Who wants first kill?"

"Allow me..." said the stranger quietly, and there was a blur of movement.

"Wha?" The Vendeeni officer looked down at his stomache, where something long and metallic had pierced through.

The other Vendeeni stared in shock for a second, and then started shooting at the attacker.

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Few minutes later, all the Vendeeni lay dead, as the Federation Transport ship flew towards the space. The stranger stood alone in the middle of the carnage.

He sighed, "I kill and kill, yet they keep on coming..." The man remained silent for a while.

"No matter... As long as there is suffering, I'll do what I can... for eternity if need be..." And with that, a blue-white light surrounded him and he disappeared.


	2. Aldian Assault and the Meeting

Eden Raid - Thanks for your advice. Btw, I read "Plushie Madness!", it was funny (evil Colette XD)!

star-rikku - Heh, sorry about the "gruesomeness", it'll probably appear a lot, but I'll try to minimize (emphasis of TRY).

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean nor any of the Rurouni Kenshin based stuff.

**Chapter 1:Aldian Assault and theMeeting**

Aboard the Federation ship The Radish, fear and panic had taken hold. The Aldians had launched consecutive attacks on several Federation territories and were decimating any oppositions with their superior numbers. Among those onboard the ship watched the terrible scene through the display screen, were a 12 year old little girl and her mother.

_(Flashback)_

_"No, Daddy! I wanna stay, too!" cried a little girl with long blue hair. _

_"I'm sorry, honey, but we have no choice. Now listen to me. This place isn't safe. They've already broadcast the evacuation announcement for all civilians." Richard replied._

_When the child started to protest, Jessie, her mother intervened, "Listen to your father. It's hard enough for him already. Come along with me. And don't worry about Daddy, he'll take care of those Aldians and then meet up with us on Arakh." _

_"Really? You promise?" asked Maria in a teary voice._

_"I promise!" Her father assured her._

_After reassuring their daughter once more, Richard then turns to his wife, ""Jessie, take good care of her."_

_"I will, dear..."_

_As he leaves his family to join in the resistance against the invaders, Jessie and Maria hurries to board The Radish and escape the Federation Station #17._

_(End Flashback)_

As Maria stared at the display, shaking from head to toe, her mother tried to calm her. She remined Maria that her father did promise to meet up with them later. Maria settled down a bit, but still remained unstable. Suddenly, the Federation Station #17, which was under heavy bombardment, took a critical hit, and the whole construct began to fall apart. There was no way anyone could've survived the following devastation. The crowd fell completely silent.

"No... Richard!" Jessie gasped with a hand over her mouth.

"Daddy..." Maria could barely get the word out, as if something was lodged in her throat, disabling her ability to speak properly.

Without warning, The Radish gave a sudden, violent jerk as something hit it hard. Some people lost their balance and fell down, while the rest clutched onto something. They began murmuring in unease, had that shot come from an Aldian battleship? Had they been overtaken? Were they in danger? Shortly after, a Federation officer burst into the room and informed the civilians that they have indeed been targeted by the Aldians, and that it was no longer safe to remain here. He instructed them to head for the escape pods immediately. Just as they were about to leave, another shot rocked the ship, harder this time, and most of the people were flung across the room. There was panick and everyone started running out screaming madly.

"Ouch!" Maria yelled in pain as she crashed into the replicator.

"Are you okay Maria?" Jessie got up quickly and tried to get her to walk, but Maria merely winced in pain as she struggled to stand up. "Oh, no, your leg in injured..." Jessie was on the verge of panicking.

"You should hurry to the pods..." Jessie jumped as a voice spoke behind her.

"I-It's my daughter Maria! She hurt her leg and can't move!" Jessie replied after she got over the initial surprise.

Maria saw that the one who spoke was a tall figure wearing a dark-blue cape. She couldn't see any part of his body except for his lower face. There was also some long, thin object, perhaps 7 feet or so in length, wrapped in a cloth, strapped diagonally across his back. She wondered how he could act so calm in a situation like this, she was scared to death at the moment! He stood there for a second, then picked her up in his arms. Maria had a glimpse of something black beneath his cape as he did so.

The trio were now running across corridors towards the escape pods. Along the way, another blast shook the ship, forcing them to hold on to a door frame. As the shock subsided, Jessie started to move just as the stranger shouted "Don't!". The ship shook again, but this time with so much force that objects were dislodged completely. Jessie, who had no time to regain her grasp on a handhold, was flung aside. The stranger held Maria in one hand and grabbed Jessie's arm with the other, hooking his right foot in a groove of the door frame as he did so. Yet another blast hit The Radish from the other side, sending Jessie right towards the stranger. He snarled in pain as both Jessie and Maria crashed into him and he smashed into the wall from the impact. His hood had fallen back and Maria was able to see his face. He wore a black bandana that had unfamiliar symbols of sorts on it, although only the front was visible, the rest of it was covered by his shoulder-length dark red hair. His eyes were crystal blue. Maria shuddered. Something about those eyes gave her the chills. They were sharp and gleamed as if some strange light shone within, the gaze was cold, so very cold. What surprised her though, was the fact that he looked so... **young**, 14 or 15 perhaps. Getting up on his feet, he helped Jessie rise and secured Maria back in his arms, and they resumed their trek.

As they reached the entrance to the Escape pod chamber, Jessie stopped them and looked Maria in the eyes.

"Look Maria, we might never meet again, and there's something I need to tell you."

"No! Don't say that! You get in an escape pod, too, Mommy!" Maria was close to breaking down.

An official announcement stated that there was one minute to warp engine core collapse. Once it did, the ship was finished, they had to get off immediately. Despite all this thought running around his mind, the red-haired youth remained still and silent.

"No, if I don't say this now, I'll regret it for the rest of my life." Jessie seemed to be struggling "...Your father and I are not you real parents."

Maria looked dumbfounded. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"We love you with all our hearts, just as if you were our own child. But, your real parents are still out there somewhere." Jessie told her with sad eyes.

"Mommy, I don't understand. What are you-" Truth is, she understood perfectly, she simply dind't want to accept it.

"You don't need to understand right now. You'll know the truth someday." Jessie interrupted.

Official Announcement sounded again, '30 seconds to warp engine core collapse.'

"You're very important! You must not give up. You must survive! You havethe power within yourself..." ('15 seconds to warp engine core collapse.') "I love you, Maria." Jessie whispered and gave the red-haired youth a nod.

He nodded in return and turned away slowly towards the escape pod, just as Jessie asked "Please, take her somewhere safe, please help her..."

He stopped, turned his head slightly, and replied "...I'll do what I can".

'10 seconds to warp engine core collapse.' The door closed.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Maria cried out, as the youth accessed the last pod.

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On the other side of the closed door... 'Warp engine core collapse in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0...'

"You must survive." said Jessie, as she closed her eyes...


	3. The Hunted and the Departure

_Thanks to everyone that reviewed and gave me tips, I aprreciate and hope you will help me more!_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean**

Chapter 2: The Hunted and the Departure

_"No! Please, not the child! Please spare the child!"_

_"Out of the way, foolish woman!"_

_"Please! I beg you!"_

_BAM! (Gunfire)_

_"Mo... mmy"_

_"Heh, I'll make this quick for you, you FREAK!"_

_"Gah... GWAAAAAAAAAAAH!"_

_"Wha- what!"_

_(Sound of explosion)_

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A young man with long red hair jerked awake, bits of cold sweat on his forehead. He was in an escape pod's cockpit. A blue-haired little girl sat on his lap, curled against his chest. She was asleep, tear marks still fresh on her face. The red-haired youth took a few seconds to regain his composure. He sighed, that dream had unsettled his usual calm demeanor. He closed his eyes, and images of a burning village, a little kid slumped against a rock, armed men engaged in combat, ground littered with corpses, a huge graveyard flashed in his mind one after another. The youth shook his head again, this time punching himself in the face.

'Grr... No, why am I remembering these things? I haven't thought about them for so long... So why now, all of sudden?' The youth thought, then glanced at the little girl sleeping soundly.

'Can it be becaue of her? Is it this child's experiences reminding me of mine? Absurd! I never heard of dreams being affected like so' (In fact, this was his first dream in years).

He tried to shrug off the feeling of unease, then glanced back at the girl. Admittedly, he had been feeling something strange while he was in her presence. It was as if something buried deep with him had awakened, drawn, resonating to another power. He did sense something familiar about her, not by memory, just by... gut instinct perhaps, but he couldn't quite place a finger on it. As he was pondering all this, the girl slowly awoke. She looked around, and then suddenly curled up tightly against his chest again.

"...Maria, right? You should eat something, its been 2 days already..." He told her worriedly.

She didn't reply. The youth sighed and was about to say something when the computer announced that an unfamiliar signal had been found. It did not match anything in the database, and it was also not clear whether it is hostile or not. The youth was extremely annoyed. So far, he had **happened** to wander into Station #17 right before it was attacked, got tossed around in a bound-to-be-destroyed ship, had some unpleasant dream (He tried to block that one out), and now stuck in the middle of nowhere with a potentially dangerous entity approaching him when he was riding in an **ESCAPE **pod. As he felt the pod being pulled into the unknown ship, he reached for the long, thin bundle lying next to him. Once the pod stopped moving, he heard 2 voices outside. Carefully placing Maria on the seat while he crouched right in front of the hatch, he held the long object loosely near the edge with his right hand, pointed at the exit.

The moment it opened, he sprang forward, using his left hand to thrust his "weapon" towards the figure standing in front of the opening. The supposed enemy dodged quickly to the side, as the youth propelled right past him. He planted one feet on the floor and twirled so he faced his opponent, ready to dash again, and stopped abruptly when he saw that the target had both hands up.

"Whoa, kid! Chill out a sec there will ya?" said the tall, muscular blond man. "Your acting like I tried to kill you! Sheesh."

"...Who are you?" the youth inquired, (or demanded rather, considering his sharp tone) slowly lowering his weapon.

"Sorry if we startled you." The youth turned to find another person, this one a blond woman. "I am Mirage Koas and his name is Cliff Fittir."

"We're Klausians of the Quark, and you are currently aboard our flagship, the Diplo." Cliff added.

"...Quark?" The youth asked, while he remembered that Klausians were excellent fighters due to their natural body fitness (No wonder he dodged easily, he thought).

"Well... Simply put, we're an anti-federation group, although we used to be just a bunch of traders." Cliff explained, the youth gave no reply.

"Who's this? Your sister?" Mirage asked, peering in the pod.

The youth remembered that Maria was still in there, and he ran to the pod, carefully carrying her out. She looked rather bad, thanks to the bruises from the Radish incident and lack of food. The two Klausian immediately led him to the medical bay, where she was treated at once and then tucked into a bed.

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A little later Maria woke up, and stared at her surroundings, confused.

"Hey there!" Maria gave a start when someone spoke behind her, and turned around to find a two blond people.

"Hi, what's your name?" The woman asked genially.

"...Maria"

"Well, nice to meet you Maria, my name's Mirage Koas."

"And I'm Cliff Fittir, nice to meet you kid." The man next to Mirage replied.

Maria merely gave a slight nod and started looking around, as if searching for something. Mirage supposed that she was looking for the boy, and asked her if he was her brother, to which Maria shook her head. When the two had finished filling her in about the current situation, the young man came in, and went to her side, asking if she was okay. Maria told him she was fine, and then the youth nodded and stood up, leaning against the wall. Mirage had apparently ran a thourough check on their pod, since she asked them if they were survivors of the recent Aldian attack. When she saw that both of them were reluctant to discuss this topic, she immediately dropped it. When Maria gave a small yawn, the Klausians decided to take the two newcomers to a spare room.

"Oh yeah, by the way, I never got your name kid." Cliff said suddenly.

The youth seemed to hesitate a bit, then he saw Maria looking up at him (He was carrying her again), and his tension eased a bit.

"...Shuyin Magna"

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(Some dark room with four pedestals in it, three of which were lit)

"...We have located the anomaly." A slightly distorted female's form, who seemed to be floating above the pedestal, announced.

"Good, he has evaded us for a while now." Replied another form, this one male.

"At last... Now we can chase him down." said another male's voice, this one rather bitter.

"Send some of the Hunters, they may carry out their orders in anyway they wish." The first male ordered.

"As you wish..." The other two replied.

Then the three figures disappeared and the room was pitch black.

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The Diplo had made a brief stop at planet Telix for supplies. The Klausians took this chance to have the newcomers get out of the ship and enjoy some fresh air and liveliness for once. Although Telix had basic space-traveling technologies, it was only gained recently and thus the general level of development was highly primitive compared to the likes of Earth. However, this also meant that items that were either no longer sold or hard to find on Earth was easy to obtain here. This proved to be quite effective in improving litlle Maria's mood. She looked around the many shops and attraction in the busy city, which was even more lively than usual because of a festival. The red haired youth, Shuyin, was being dragged all over the place, since Maria was clinging (More like a deathgrip) to his arm. Although he didn't really like being in a crowd, the sight of the little child, who had recently gone through many hardships, enjoying her time on this foreign planet made him overlook that at the moment. He had to admit, the child had a strong will, most people he saw who went through a similar crisis usually ended up in a state of shock for weeks or months. He could see that she was trying her best to forget about the horrible loss that day. They later had a picture taken by an insisting festival official, who had mistaken Maria as Shuyin's "little sister". The way Maria was clinging onto him and dragging him everywhere certainly did make them look like siblings. Little later, Shuyin found Mirage and told Maria to stay with her while he took care of some business. He returned a shortly afterwards and the three headed towards a park.

Upon aprroaching it, they saw that a bunch of teenage boys were bothering some people. The gangsters were knocking over elders, harassing girls, smoking (Shuyin caught a scent of something that he knew was illegal on Telix), throwing little kids' toys into the fountain, and committing several other mischiefs. When they saw him and Maria (Mirage had left briefly to check on Cliff), they approached them.

"Hey little girl, watcha got there?" asked the apparent leader of the little "gang", pointing at Maria's shake that Shuyin had gotten her earlier.

"We're a bit thirsty right now, mind sharin?" Sneered the "boss". Shuyin pulled Maria back a bit, and she hid behind him.

"Oh? What do you want dude? Huh?" The miscreant asked, attempting to shove Shuyin, who batted his hand away with so much force that the "bully" lost balance and lurched sideways.

"Oh you want a fight? Is that it? Huh? You're in for it now punk!" and jabbed at his face with his fist.

Shuyin merely tilted his head sideways, so the miscreant missed. He then grabbed the long bundle strapped across his back and swiped at the thug's feet, causing him to fall on his back. The leader cursed and barked at his gang to do what they want with Shuyin. They cracked their knuckles and charged at him. Shuyin sighed mentally 'Great, now I have some **brats** picking a fight' as he whacked some on the head, jabbed some on the stomache, and swiped the rest off their feet with his bundle. Clutching their sore whereever-they-got-smacked, the gang hurried away, still hauling curses at him that made the parents in the vicinity cover their children's ears. Maria came out from hiding and saw Mirage coming towards them laughing slightly. It seemed that the little scene in which Shuyin had smacked the gangsters around so easily was rather comical to look at. Maria giggles lightly too while Shuyin just shook his head. They decided to return to the ship and started walking a few steps when Shuyin suddenly halted. Mirage was surprised and was about to ask why when something came speeding towards them from a nearby treetop.

Shuyin pushed his two companions away as the chain caught one his arm, the one Maria had been holding on to. He struggled against it for a second and then pulled hard, and the attacker fell from the tree. He wore a mask and was dressed in ninja-style black clothes. He let out a whistle while giving the chain a tug. Two more figure appeared beside him, one large man with a broad axe and another man with a katana on his belt. The ninja(?) spoke to Shuyin.

"Subject 00, you are to accept arrest. If you resist, then we shall not hesitate to _eliminate_ you" he said the particular verb with much emphasis.

"...So, now they don't mind me dead, do they?" Shuyin asked, a slight scowl forming in his face.

"Will you come quietly?" Inquired the man with the katana.

"...I thought my message was clear the last time" snapped Shuyin. Maria noticed the gleam in his eyes, the gleam she had seen back at the Radish. Furing there time in the festival, his eyes had held certain amount of warmth, to her at least, but now not only have they gone cold, but it _changed_. The sapphire blue eyes were now slowly turning into a hue of yellow. Coupled with his look of contempt, it gave him a rather feral, and dangerous, appearance. Mirage got up and started towards him, but he held up a hand and told her to take Maria and leave. Reluctantly, she took the child and ran to the edge of the park, where the people from the park were now all gathered, staring at the scene before them.

"If that is so, then we have no choice but to destroy you!" said the axeman.

"You will try" Shuyin snarled, and he flung his cape off, revealing his outfit. He wore a white shirt with black chestplate and shoulderplates on top, both with similar symbols engraved on them in gold. The brown gloves he wore were long enough to cover up to his forearm. A green bracelet with strange markings was on his left wrist. His pants were black and covered up to his knee by high black boots, with similar golden symbols on his armor. Around his waist was a type of sash, to which several small pouches were attached. He also had a sword by his side, much like one of his foes. He then unraveled the bundle, which turned out to be a long black spear, which also contained the strange golden markings.

"To those of you who have no respect for life... I shall show the equal lack of respect for yours..." He spat, glaring at the three.

"Die!" and the three assassins pounced.

But Shuyin was faster. He had his lance held in similar position as he had back when he attacked Cliff (by mistake), right hand in the middle of the lance, left hand near the front, just below the blade, pointed straight at the axeman, his body was turned sideways and slightly crouched so his left side faced them. Then he dashed at great speed, releasing the left hand and thrusting with the right. The lance went right through the huge man. Shuyin then jumped up, and twisted his body so he landed behind the man, but remained facing him. Instantly he grabbed his lance and pulled, forcing the remaining parts of the lance to clear the poor man's body. The axeman screamed and fell.

The ninja hurled his chain again, which Shuyin easily dodged, and followed up with shurikens, which Shuyin parried using his lance. During this time, the swordsman had snuck up behind Shuyin, and attempted to slice his head off, his target suddenly dropped to the ground as he took a swing. Shuyin made a wide arc towards his back, and the blade of his lance met the blade of a katana, the swordsman had quickly shoved his sword into ground in order to block the sweep. The ninja jumped upon a tree and propelled off of it, descending right on top of Shuyin with double daggers out. Shuyin kicked the ground, propelling himself out of danger. The swordsman pressed his attack, stabbing at his prey. Suddenly he was smashed into the floor as his sword went down abruptly. Shuyin had jumped right on top of the blade, which was held horizontally, and the grip the swordsman had on the sword caused him to fall as well. The ninja came to his comrades aid by throwing some more shurikens. Shuyin leapt away again. The ninja held his daggers and jumped off another tree, hoping to meet him in mid-air, but Shuyin shoved his lance into a nearby tree and swung himself down. Just as the ninja passed overhead, Shuyin slid the lance in his hand so that he held onto the very end of it, jumped and drew a circle in the air. The ninja collapsed onto the ground with a hole where his heart should've been.

Shuyin then turned to the last assailant. He shifted his grip upwards a bit, and charged, slashing at his foe. The swordsman blocked and retaliated, the tip of his sword coming near Shuyin's face. Shuyin twisted his body so the stab missed and dashed away. Turning back to face his opponent once more, he held the lance exactly as last time, and charged again. The swordsman prepared his sword, expecting another slash from his right side, so that he would be able to rush in and utilize an underside slash before his enemy completed his attack. But at the last possible second, Shuyin _reversed _his grip on the land, leapt sideways as the swordsman charged, so that he was no facing the left side of the assassin. Shuyin twirled to his left, keeping his arm outstretched to the side, until the blade buried itself in the swordsman's arm. He howled in pain and fell.

The victorious lanceman advanced on his fallen foe. he kicked him over so he lay flat on his stomache, and then using the tip of his spear, carved words into his back, ignoring the screams of pain. He then kicked the man so he faced upwards, and snarled "Go back and deliver that message for me..." , then he grabbed him by the shirt and hurled him across the park. The man stood up shortly afterwards, and staggered off, cradling hs maimed hand.

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Mirage joined cliff and Shuyin after she tucked Maria in, the little girl had fainted during the battle between the three assassins and Shuyin. No matter how many times Cliff asked, however, Shuyin would not speak. Having given up, Cliff asked him what he was going to do. He even offered to help should he need it.

"No... You cannot help" Shuyin replied flatly.

"Oh, is that so?" said Cliff, scratching his head, "So then, what now?"

"I'm leaving..." Shuyin answered.

Cliff and Mirage stared at him blankly.

"Bu-but, what about Maria?" Cliff asked.

"She should be happy with you guys..." Shuyin said, "Besides, it's better that no one associates with me, they seem to have changed their ways." Cliff and Mirage said nothing, knowing that he won't explain even if they asked him.

"Well... You gotta do what you gotta do, I suppose" Cliff sighed.

"I thank you for your hospitality... I must leave now" Shuyin gave a short bow and started to walk away. He suddenly stopped and turned back.

"I almost forgot, give this to Maria for me..." He slipped something into Mirage's hand, then really left.

Mirage looked at the item. It was a gold locket on golden chains. She thought about opening it, but then decided that would be inappropriate. It was after all, she said to herself, Maria's belonging now, as she went in Maria's room and placed the trinket on the bedside table. The little girl slept on, not knowing the departure of the figure clad in a dark-blue cape.


	4. The Journey Begins

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean**

Chapter 3: The Journey Begins

Diplo, the flagship of the anti-federation group Quark, cruised lazily in a space at the middle of nowhere. The atmosphere in the bridge of the ship matched the behavior of the ship as well. The personnels were either staring blankly at one screen or another, or simply having a casual chat amongst them. In fact, only one person seemed to be rather alert, the rest of the crew were suffering from major lethargy in general. That person was a young lady with long blue hair and matching blue eyes (AN: Not sure about the eyes, oh well...) wearing light body armor and protective gears over a black garment, with two hand guns stashed away in their holster. Se seemed to be expecting something, for she constantly checked the communication frequency. At last, after another one whole boring hour, news arrived. The display screen in the bridge showed two blond Klausians.

"Hey, we finally tracked him down" The male reported.

"That's good, do you have him with you, Cliff?" The blue-haired female asked.

"Well... There is a slight, ah, 'variable', that's going to cause some complications." Cliff replied while scratching his head.

"Variable?"

"Well, you see Maria, the place just got razed by the Vendeeni." The female Klausian explained.

"Great... So, do you still know his whereabouts Mirage?" Maria asked.

"Judging by the signals we're picking up, I'd say he is most likely to end up in Vanguard III, but it will be difficult to pinpoint his exact location. "

"I see, well, try your best you two." Maria told them.

"Gotcha, oh by the way, it seems like the prof. got himself caught by them Vendeeni" Cliff said at the last minute.

"...Understood Cliff, thanks.." Maria acknowledged.

Once the screen went blank, Maria sat in the Captain's chair and sighed. She had been so close to meeting someone whom she had wanted to speak to for a long time, one Fayt Leingod. How much longer will it take them to find him? There was much she wanted to discuss with him, about something they both shared in common. She had hoped to be able to speak with his father as well, but it seemed like that would have to wait even longer. Maria ordered one of crew members to look into the current status of Professor Leingod, then got up and walked towards the door. A young man named Lieber stopped her for a moment, but when Maria asked him what was wrong, he merely said that it was nothing (after much incomprehensible blabber). The young leader of the Quarks headed to her room and sat in front of the computer once she was in. She stared absentmindedly at it just as her crew had done back at the bridge, while fiddling the gold chain that she wore around her neck. Then she tugged on it, pulling out something that had been tucked underneath her shirt. It was a small golden locket. Upon opening it, she looked at the picture that was placed within. The smiling faces of a little blue haired girl that was unmistakably her younger self looked back at her. Next to her was another face, this one of a young male with long dark-red hair and blue eyes. 'It's been 7 years...' she thought. Maria looked at the youth for a long while before tucking the locket away again and started to check on some data (the same one she had gone over about a 100 times) on her computer.

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Shuyin Magna could not believe his luck. He simply could NOT believe it. He had just arrived at Hyda IV, and expected to have some brief peace and quiet while he was there, when some accursed Vendeeni ships bore down at the planet and started bombarding the place. He had been led to a emergency shelter and then later transported to a federation transport ship, the Helre. The transport ship was currently traveling in gravitic warp space, away from the battle zone. He glanced at two youths, one blue-haired male and one younger brunette female. The two have been friends since childhood, and were among the civilians that had been present on the resort planet when the Vendeeni attacked. He had found them and two other people, a huge man and one young, rather cheerful Velbaysian girl, when they were locked in combat with some Incapacitator machines of the Vendeeni. Spotting them while he was on his way to the transporter, he had smashed the machines into scrap with his lance. Thus, he was accompanying the two currently. The huge man and the Velbaysian were hanging around with their troupe. The young man's name was Fayt Leingod, who had lost contact with his parents ever since the whole crisis began. The young girl's name was Sophia Esteed, a longtime childhood friend of Fayt that had tagged along on this vacation-turned-madness.

"I can't believe this, this was supposed to be a _vacation_! Why did those Vendeeni have to attack a _resort_ planet!" Fayt spat.

"I sure hope uncle Robert and Aunt Ryoko are safe..." Sophia said.

Suddenly the ship returned to normal space, and Fayt was surprised when he saw a huge battleship firing on them.

"What the? Is that a Vendeeni battleship!" Fayt wondered.

"Apparently so..." Shuyin said passively, as Fayt stared at him incredulously.

"How can you be so calm! A rescue ship is no match against something like that!" said Fayt.

"What good will panicking do?" Shuyin asked, still maintaining that ridiculously calm air.

"I'm scared Fayt..." Sophia whimpered.

Just then a blast of energy hit the Helre's shield. The ship rocked from the impact as the shield struggled futiley against the energy blasts. Soon after, one of the crew member entered the chamber and urged everyone to head for the espcape pods. The three companions hastened to obey. While they were running across the corridors, Shuyin couldn't help but remember a very similar scenario about 7 years ago. A brief image of a small figure with blue hair flashed in his mind for a split second before they arrived in the espcape pod chamber. After promising Sophia to meet up at Remote Station #7 later, Fayt makes her enter the pod. A soldier told them that there were a few pods left in another room and beckoned them to it. Shuyin quietly bade Fayt farewell as he entered an escape pod, the scenario from 7 years ago surfacing in his mind again. He quickly focused on the matter at hand, as the pod blasted off and he saw the Vendeeni ship attempting capture some of them. 'Hm,' Shuyin thought, 'if they are trying to capture the pods instead of destroying them, then they are clearly looking for someone...' One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to be one of those that got caught. His escape pod veered away from the Vendeeni ship and then entered gravitic warp space.

Later in the escape pod, Shuyin decideds to run a check on current status. He requested for information on the nearest life-supporting planet.

"Searching... The closest planet is Elicoor II." The computer replied.

Shuyin suddenly looked stricken upon hearing this. 'Elicoor II... ' He sighed, 'Why there of all places? I never expected to go there again...' He remained still for a moment, thinking hard.

"Very well... Mark Elicoor II as the destination, take care to land in a remote area devoid of any sentient beings.

"Affirmative", the computer replied as the pod continued to wade through the gravitic warp space.

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"Marietta, any news on Cliff and Mirage?" Maria asked the female crew member.

"Negative Captain, we haven't heard a word from them since they contacted us near Vanguard III."

The Diplo was currently floating in space where it was supposed to have met up with the Eagle, the ship Cliff and Mirage had took with them on their mission. Despite having waited for hours, the Eagle failed to show up. The entire crew had been working hard on locating it, with no luck so far. Tension began to rise up among them.

'Cliff, Mirage... Fayt, where are you?' Maria thought to herself.

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On Elicoor II, three figures could be seen running across the Traum Mountain. One was Cliff Fittir of the Quarks, another was Fayt the Earthling boy, and the other was a red-haired female agent of the kingdom of Aquaria, Nel Zelpher.

'Man, this just keeps getting better and better,' Fayt though bitterly.

He quickly recounted what had happened so far. He had arrived on a planet called Vanguard III safely, and was helped by two native children, Niklas and Meena. He then got mixed up in an incident with a Rezerbian fugitive called Norton, who had been using his advanced techonology (which was prohibited to be displayed in underdeveloped planets by Federation law) to terrorize and extort the villagers. Cliff arrived in the scene just in time to prevent Norton from blasting him with a rifle. Together they had beaten the thug and left the planet onboard the Eagle, where he met Mirage. Cliff had explained to him that his boss wanted to meet him, but wouldn't go into details, saying that he would find out when they met her. They they had been attacked by a hostile battleship and was forced to crash-land on Elicoor II, which was an underdeveloped planet, when the Eagle's engine malfunctioned from the damage. To make matters worse, the kingdom of Airyglyph, the site of their crash, thought they were from an enemy country and had captured Cliff and him. Mirage had waited and escaped afterwards. After lengthy, painful _interrogation_, Nel had shown up and freed them on the condition that the two of them aided her country, which was the one at war with Airyglyph. Once they were out, they met up with Nel's subordinates Tynave and Farleen, who had prepared a carriage. While they were discussing some things (Nel wanted the two to help her kingdom build a weapon, to which Fayt was point-blank refusing), the Dragon Brigade of Airyglyph had shown up. Tynave and Farleen acted as bait while the other three leapt off the carriage and were currently dashing for cover.

"Damn, persistent aren't they?" Cliff remarked as some Dragon Riders flew past nearby.

"We should head for Kirlsa, from there we can rest up and leave for Arias tomorrow morning." Nel told her companions.

As the last of the Riders disappeared from sight, the three crawled out of their hiding place and began their journey to Kirlsa.

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Meanwhile, in a different part of Elicoor II, Shuyin had exited his pod. He looked around and reaized that he was in the Mosel Dunes. Ignoring the terrible heat, he took what supplies he can from the pod and sent one last distress signal out. Once he was done, he stood outside and faced the pod. Stretching out a hand, he murmured something as his palm began to emit a white glow. Suddenly, huge slabs of rock shot up from the ground and slammed into the pod. Within seconds, the pod was completely buried under a mound of rock and sand. Lowering his hand, Shuyin drew his cape around him and started searching for a nearby town.


	5. Familiar Faces

_Note: I had to modify some of the facts in the game, so please don't mind any obvious content mistakes. Anyways, I'm always thankful to those who reviewed and hope that more will do so as well. Thanks!_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean**

Chapter 4: Familiar Faces

Fayt, Cliff and Nel, along with a badly wounded Tynave and Farleen, were nearing the border town of Arias, which was in bad shape from having been invaded several times in the war. Fayt and the others had came here earlier, but when Nel found out that Tynave and Farleen were being held captive in the Kirlsa Training Facility under the Black Brigade's control, she had gone off to rescue them. The next day, Fayt and Cliff hurried to follow her when Clair, Nel's close friend, informed them about what Nel was up to. After meeting up with each other, they had fought there way through hordes of soldiers, and finally defeated the second-in-command of the Black Brigade, Shelby. Before they left, they had encountered the leader of the Brigade, Albel Nox, known as Albel the Wicked. Fortunately, he considered beating them now would simply be picking on the weak (Fayt and his companions were exhausted from all the fighting), and let them go _generously_. Nel reckons that they were very lucky for that, while Cliff was swearing that he will beat the living daylight out of him the next time they met. Once in Arias, Clair hurried the two injured agents to medical care. With that out of the way, the three decided to continue their journey towards Aquios, capital city of Aquaria.

This took them to the trading city of Peterny, where Fayt had met a young, frail girl named Ameena, who had a striking resemblance to Sophia. She made a living selling flowers she picked from the fields with the help of her neighbor. Her entire family had perished in the war, which increased Fayt's hatred towards those who would harm others to gain what they wanted. Just as they were about to leave, Ameena's neighbor came hurrying to them, asking them to help Ameena, who had collapsed in the Duggus Forest to the west of the town. Deciding to help, Fayt and the others took a detour to the said forest in an attempt to find her.

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'This place hasn't changed much...' Shuyin thought grimly, 'except perhaps the lack of corpses...'.

He walked through the forest casually, observing his surroundings as he went. After leaving the scorching desert, he had reached the city of Surferio. Not wanting to draw attention, he slipped through the town quietly under the cover of night, and continued on towards where, if his memory served, Arias was located. He had taken a detour to the Duggus Forest along the way when he saw a screaming middle-aged woman run out of it towards a town nearby, wondering what had caused her to act like so.

'The air... there's something strange about it...' he mused. 'Well... at least the scent of blood isn't as strong as last time...'

As he was deep in thought, the ground shook slightly and caused him to look back. Some of the monsters living in the forest had rolled huge boulders down from a cliff above the area he was in. Shuyin merely sighed as he sliced one in half with his lance, then outstretched one hand as he muttered "Lunar Sphere". Small silvery balls of light blasted from his hands towards the beasts, sending them crashing against boulders and trees. They whimpered and retreated to their lairs, but Shuyin knew that they would be back, unable to resist playing dangerous pranks on others who wandered into this place. Acting as though nothing surprising hap happened, he continued on his way. It had been a long while now since he entered this forest, and so far he hadn't found any significant cause to that woman's panicking. If it weren't for the strange presence he felt in here, he would've thought that she had fallen victim to one of the pranks of these creatures. No, that couldn't have been it, he reminded himself as he kept trudging through. More than once he would encounter a tree blocking the way, but he knew that these were actually monsters disguised as trees, and wasted no time chopping up, burning, or sending them flying out of the way.

Eventually he encountered an area covered by fog, which was odd since he couldn't remember such a thing happening before. He then heard some people shouting somewhere. His eyes, through extensive training, were able to penetrate the fog a bit, and he began to run towards the noise, knocking out some fiends that he met along the way. Once at the source of the noise, he saw thfour people battling some large monster that was dripping mud all over. In fact, it seemed to be made of mud. 'How unusual,' he thought 'the only time I've seen something like this was in that cave... And this one's different too.' Putting these thoughts aside, he raised his hands once again, preparing to aid the three figures.

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Cliff growled in frustration as he leapt out of reach of the muddy hands of the monster. Although he was delivering some hard punches and kicks, he wasn't even sure if that blasted thing felt any of it. It seemed to be nothing but a mass of mud, which was flailing its "arms" trying to crush him and his buddies. Nel was busy casting runological spells on the mud beast, while Fayt was focusing power into his sword so that it was emitting a blue aura as he slashed.

"Dammit! Just what is thing made out of!" Cliff shouted

"Do you HAVE to ask!" Fayt shouted back as he sent a shock of electricity towards their foe.

"Oh, never mind"

"Less talking and more fighting would actually help here, you two, I think we just need to hit it a little more." Nel called out.

"But we can't keep this up for much longer, we're tired out from all the fighting it took us to GET here" Cliff complained

"Hey you moron! Didn't you hear what the lady said? More fighting less talking ya big buffoon!" a small humanoid with a tail screamed at Cliff.

"Who you calling a buffoon Roger!" Cliff snapped back.

"ENOUGH you idiots! Just focus on the fight!" Fayt and Nel both shrieked at the two.

Suddenly Fayt felt a strange chill in the area. The others noticed it too. The next thing they knew, the ground around the monster seemed to become frosty, until it was covered in thick ice. The Mudman howled as it tried to break the ice apart. Then something silvery and round collided with its middle and it broke free of the ice from the force of the impact. The four stared, completely confused as to what just happened, then realized they had a clean shot at the annoying fiend as it was struggling to recover from the blast. Cliff focused his strength and released a sphere of energy, Fayt and Nel both sent electric bolts out, while Roger jumped up and slammed down on their foe. Hardened from the ice, the Mudman's "body" cracked and shattered here and there, and finally it dissolved into nothing more than a pile of normal mud. As soon as it was gone, the fog began to lift. The four fighters slumped down and let out a sigh of relief.

"Whew, that was close..." Cliff panted.

"Ha! Only a real man could've stood up to something like that, take that Lucien!" Roger mumbled feebly.

"Come on guys, we have to find Ameena and get going." Fayt said, getting to his feet.

As the four turned to leave the clearing they were in, they spotted another person by the entrance.

"Huh? Who are you?" Roger asked.

"...A passerby." he replied.

"Oh, are you the one who responsible for what happened to that thing?" Nel questioned. The stranger didn'r reply.

"Hey, thanks a bunch man. Those attacks were pretty neat." Cliff said.

"Wait a minute..." Fayt squinted at the stranger as the fog lessened. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

The man glanced at him, then said in a mildly surprised tone, "Didn't expect to see you again."

"Hey! It IS you! Wow, what are the odds?" Fayt exclaimed.

"Yo, Fayt, a friend of yours?" Cliff inqured.

"Yeah, he helped me out back in the Hyda IV attack, his name is Shuyin." Fayt answered.

At this Cliff froze.

"Wait, what you say his name was?"

"Huh? Shuyin, why?" Fayt asked, puzzled at Cliff's reaction.

Cliff started towards the stranger.

"Shuyin? That really you?"

Now the man was really surprised, "Cliff? What are you doing here?"

"Whoa! It REALLY is you! Haha! Haven't seen you for.. 7 years is it? How you been?" Cliff sounded overjoyed.

"Shuyin...?" Everone turned, apparently Cliff and Fayt weren't the only ones who rscognized the name. "Would you happen to be... Shuyin the Black Lance?"

At this Shuyin stiffened, "...How do you know that name?"

"You really are him then?"

"Yo Nel, what are you talking about" Cliff asked.

"We can discuss that later..." Shuyin cut in firmly.

The others noticed the tension and dropped the discussion. After all, there was something else left. Fayt remembered about Ameena and his group, along with a grim-faced Shuyin. They eventually found her lying in the middle of a flower field, unconcious. Fayt noticed Shuyin gave a slight start when he saw her. Once Cliff had carried her in his arms, Roger, who had been accompanying them because of the help he received in a "Real Man Contest", bade them farewell and left for his hometown of Surferio. The rest returned to Peterny and Nel immediately got a doctor, one of her subordinates, to look after her. Ameena soon regained conciousness.

"Ameena, are you okay?" Fayt asked

"Fayt, what happened?"

Fayt quickly recounted the prior events.

"Oh, I'm sorry for causing you trouble..." Ameena said in a shamed tone.

"No, don't be, just focus on getting better, okay?" Fayt replied warmly.

"Okay..." She answered quietly.

"Now you have make sure you take this medicine everyday and rest." Fayt said as he gave her a medicine bottle.

"Oh, but..."

"Don't worry, consider it a payment for the Maiden of Irisa" He said pointing to the charm in his chest pocket, the one that Ameena had given him when they first met earlier.

"But that was a gift! I can;t-" but Fayt stopped her and told her not to worry again. Cliff came in later and told him it was time to leave. Fayt nodded and said goodbye to Ameena.

As he rejoined the group outside, Ameena noticed through her window a tall figure with long red hair wearing a blue cape. He seemed oddly familiar. Then she suddenly got up on her bed and murmured "Shu?". But as she tried to get a better look, the four walked away.


	6. Copper and the Blame

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean**

Chapter 5: Copper and the Blame

Fayt, Shuyin, Cliff, and Nel left the trading town of Peterny and headed into the Irisa Fields, which would lead them to the Aquios. During their conversation, Shuyin learned that Nel wanted Fayt and Cliff, who she had been led to believe were engineers from Greeton (Shuyin regarded the name with disgust), to help Aquaria create a new weapon. It appeared that Fayt refused at first, but after seeing how the war had affected people such as Ameena, he decided that ending it quickly at all cost would be better. Shuyin kept silent the whole time as they continued to talk. Then Cliff detached himself from the discussion and drifted back to him.

"Still not much of a talker eh? You haven't changed a bit." Ciff remarked.

"I can say the same for you..."

"Oh, you betcha! No matter how much time passes, I'll be good ol' Cliff, you can count on that!"

"..." Cliff thought for a moment and spoke again.

"Maria took your leave pretty hard you know." Shuyin turned to look at him

"What do you mean?"

"Well... When she woke up the day after you left, and she didn't see you by her side like always, she went running around the entire ship, checking every room. Then she shut herself up in her room for three days." Shuyin's face became slightly uneasy.

"... I didn't mean to cause any problem."

"I know, its just, she had just lost her family you know? You were probably the only one she was close to at that time, and losing you as well must've been too much."

"What happened then?"

"Well, Mirage and I decided one day to try and cheer her up again. When we entered the room, she was looking at whatever you put in that thing. She also had a piece of paper in her hand, I think. Then she put away that paper in a drawer and put the locket around her neck. After that, she sorta went back to normal."

"...That's good."

"Yeah, whatever you gave her, it really did the trick. Oh, by the way, she's the current leader of Quark as well." Shuyin jerked his gae back at Cliff

"What about you?" Cliff gave a shrug.

"I resigned and handed her the position. I'm still working for the group though. I'll tell you about it later, it's kind of a long story." Shuyin nodded slightly.

At last, they had arrived at the magnificent city of Aquios, its castle standing proudly within it. As Nel led them towards the castle, Shuyin told them that he had some business to attend to, and would meet them later. Fayt and Cliff were puzzled by this. The rest of them continued towards the castle. Once in the grand castle, she took them to the audience chamber, where Queen Aquaria XXVII, Romeria Zin Emurillem was waiting. The Queen thanked the two "Greeton engineers" for offering their help. Magistrate Lasselle, the advisor, told a guard to take them to the guest's room. As the two left, Nel remained behind to tell her Queen another news.

"Is there something else Nel?" the Queen asked.

"Yes your majesty, you see, we have met someone on our way here and..."

"And?"

"Your majesty, I believe that he may be The Black Lance." Nel said quietly

"What? You mean Lord Magnus, the feared warrior of the Greeton Invasion?" Lasselle broke in.

"Peace Lasselle. Is this true Nel? You have indeed met master Magnus?"

"I believe so, your majesty, the engineers seemed to know him on friendly terms, even addressing him casually."

"So, after all these years, he's finally shown himself again..."

"But this is perfect, if we can get the engineers to enlist Lord Magnus's aid, then our morale would rise while the enemy will be devastated! I mean to say, he IS the one they called the God of De-." Queen Romeria cut him off.

"That's enough Lasselle. Nel, could you bring him here when you get the chance? I'd like to have a few words with him."

"Yes, your majesty." and with that, Nel left the chamber.

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The next day, Nel took Fayt and Cliff to the Runological Weapon Research Facility, where the new weapons of war were being studied and developed. She took them to meet Elena Frahm, the leader of the Weapon Development. When Dion Landers, the Chief Researcher arrived, she told him to let them have a look at the weapon. Once they were there, Fayt took a moment to study the weapon, a giant cannon by the looks of it. Later, he and Cliff discussed the whole thing together. They agreed that something wasn't right here. The technology for this weapon was rather advanced for the planet. After thinking it over, Fayt decided to help complete the weapon, which was having trouble attaining the necessary power and durability. Fayt found out that using copper for the wire would solve the problem, but discovered that the copper mine was in Airyglyph territory and also filled with dragons. Cliff suggested that they simply go in there, beat up any dragons and Airyglyph soldiers they meet, and nab the copper. It was a crazy idea, everyone but Cliff thought, but seeing that there was no alternative, Fayt decided to follow his plan. Nel said that she would be going as well. Having decided, the three left the city, meeting Shuyin by the entrance along the way.

The four of them arrived at Arias, where Tynave, Farleen, and Clair were waiting with supplies on a wagon. Clair bid them good luck as the four, accompanied by Tynave and Farleen, left for the Bequerel Mines. When they arrived, they saw three soldiers of the Dragon Brigade guarding the entrance. Seeing no other way in, they pounced on the soldiers. One of the riders went for Fayt, who dodged his lance and slashed at the dragon. Nel came to his aid and fired a lighting blast against it, causing it to stagger. As the rider struggled to regain control, Cliff jumped incredibly high, brought his hands together, and slammed the enemy hard. While the three were busy fighting with that rider, Shuyin faced the other two by himself. They flew in circles around him, striking here and there, but he dodged the blows easily with barely any movement. Frustrated, one of the riders urged his dragon mount to tear him to pieces with it's claws. Shuyin parried the sharp claws with his lance, then suddenly dropped low, causing the dragon to soar past him. He then sprang into the air, backflipped, and swung his lance in a wide arc, leaving a cut in the dragon's wing. Enraged by the pain, the dragon turned in an attempt to bite him, while the other rider came at him from the other side, lance at the ready. Shuyin raised a fist, then cried "Debris Shower!" as he smashed it into the ground. A deep crater formed as the ground shook from the impact. Huge chunks of rock flew towards the riders, slamming into them until one was buried under them. The other one pulled back, just as Fayt and the others finished dealing with their foe and joined Shuyin.

"So, who's next?" Cliff asked merrily

"Grrr... I'll get you for this!" snarled the last rider as he flew away.

"Leave him, we should hurry." Nel said.

The mine was indeed filled with various dragons. After much battling and solving confusing Dragon Riddles, they had finally arrived at the copper stash. In that chamber, they had to deal with a Cockatrice, a giant monster that looked like a rooster. Once the battle was over (Shuyin was burning the hideous corpse), they quickly mined enough copper and headed back to the entrance. Just as they were loading the last of the hard-earned copper, more Dragon Brigade soldiers arrived. Tynave and Farleen left for Arias with the copper while the rest of them turned to face Demetrio, Duke Vox's officer. Unlike his big talk, Demetrio lacked any impressive skill and was defeated soundly, falling below the chasm to his own doom. Fayt and the others hurried back to Arias, and ran into Tynave and Farleen, who had been attacked by the Black Brigade captain Albel Nox and his soldiers.

"Well, well, we meet again..." Albel sneered.

"You! I was looking forward to this," Cliff cracked his knuckles.

"Whatever maggot, do you honestly believe you are a match for me?"

"If you stand in our way, then we'll have to defeat you!" Fayt said, raising his sword.

"Humph, intriguing, I'm glad I came out to play. Now, show me what you got, worms!" Albel and his soldiers charged.

Shuyina and Fayt fought a soldier each, while Nel and Cliff met Albel head-on. Fayt and the soldier were trading blows, neither one backing down. The other soldier, on the other hand, was already knocked unconcious by Shuyin, who was now observing the rest of the fight. Fayt had finally subdued his foe, while Cliff was punching and kicking furiously at Albel. Albel was quite skilled as rumored. He dodged Cliff's flurry of attacks and swung his katana with precise aim. Cliff, being a Klausian, was more than up to the challenge however, and managed to dodge the blows quickly. Nel dashed in and out, slicing at Albel with her daggers, which Albel parried with the metal claw he had in place of an arm and a hand. "Shockwave Swirl!" Albel swung his katana in a wide arc in front of him, creating a shockwave that caused his foes to stumble. Pressing his advantage, he charged, attempting to impale Cliff. He was caught by surprise when Cliff yelled "Sphere of Might!" and a huge ball of energy appeared before him, forcing him to back off. He didn't see Cliff jump high into the air and bring his hand together, focus his energy, and hurl it towards him. "Hammer of Might!" Albel looked up and the next thing he knew, a small explosion sent him flying into the air. He landed hard on the ground, gasping in pain.

"How you like that? Want some more?" Cliff asked

"O-of course... I won't lose... to maggots like... you..." Albel struggled to get up, then dropped his sword and dropped on all four limbs.

"...Let's go Cliff, we need to deliver the copper." Fayt said

"Yeah, I dure don't feel like 'trouncing weaklings' ya know." Cliff smirked, quoting what the fallen swordsman before him had said before.

As his enemies got in the wagon and left, Albel slammed his fists on the ground, then threw his head back and howled in rage.

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They dropped Tynave and Farleen off at Arias and continued on to Aquios.

"Man, that was some battle wasn't it?" Cliff asked

"Sure was, I can't believe we actually beat Albel the Wicked..." Nel replied.

"Well, we got the copper, now we can finish up those Runological Weapons." Fayt said

As they entered the city, they noticed someone lying on the ground with another person beside her. Upon closer look, the one looking over the fallen girl turned out to be none other than Mirage. Fayt and Cliff greeted her, then looked at the girl on the ground. It was Ameena.

"What is she doing here?" Nel asked

"How should I know! We gotta get her help!" Fayt exclaimed.

They took her to the inn while Nel fetched a doctor. The doctor checked Ameena and said that she was stable at the moment and needed plenty of rest. As the others were discussing about her condition, Nel came in and announced that Airyglyph had begun its invasion, troops were heading to Arias as they spoke. All of them were required to appear before the Queen immediately.

"We have information that indicates this time all three of Airyglyph's brigades are taking part in the battle..." Nel told the others.

"Oh man." Cliff groaned

"I think they are going to try and wipe us out before we can complete our weapon, the Thunder Arrow. Duke Vox is commanding them."

"So they're trying to end it all in a single blow?" Fayt questioned.

"It looks like that. At any rate, Dion will head to Arias with every completed weapon at our disposal. I don't know how much he'll be able to accomplish." Upon hearing Dion's name, Ameena stirred.

"Dion...?" She said weakly.

"Ameena! You should stay in bed!" Fayt rushed to her side.

"I... Fayt?"

Fayt asked her why she had pushed herself into coming this far in her condition. Apparently, Ameena had heard her friend, whom she had been wanting to see in a long time, was at Aquios working at the Royal Research Facility. That friend turned out to be Dion, the young Chief Researcher Fayt had met earlier. Ameena was overjoyed when Fayt told her that he was indeed in Aquios, but was told to rest.

"Look at the state you're in, you need to rest! I'll bring him here for you? Alright?" Fayt said.

"Oh, okay, thanks Fayt..."

"No problem, you just make sure you relax." and he left with Cliff and Nel.

Ameena noticed that one of them stayed behind. She realized who it was after taking a closer look.

"Shu? Shu, is that you?" Shuyin raised his head and looked at her.

"It really is you! I haven't seen you for so long!" Ameena was about to get up, but then collapsed onto her bed. Shuyin quickly went by her bed.

"Ameena... Why are you here alone, where are your parents?" Shuyin asked as he tucked her in.

"Oh... They... died in this war..." Shuyin looked as if he was struck.

"They... I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I'm doing fine" Shuyin looked like he was thinking of something to say.

"...Wait, does this mean...?" He said hesitantly

"Yeah... I'm the last one of my family..." Ameena said in a sad voice, while Shuyin now looked petrified.

"This... This is... All my fault... Mine! I, I'm so sorry..." He mumbled, losing his cool completely for the first time.

"No, I told you before, that wasn't your fault! Even my parents agreed on that. We were grateful for what you did. Please don't blame yourself again..."

"But... I..." He couldn't find anything else to say. Silence hung in the room for a while.

"Um... Shu? Shouldn't you be following Fayt and the rest?" Ameena broke the silence.

"I... Yes, I suppose so..." He slowly stood up and walked away.

"I'm glad I saw you again... Shu..." Ameena said quietly. Shuyin didn't say anything for awhile, remaining still by the door.

"...Rest now." He said finally and left.

"Please Shu... stop blaming yourself..." Ameena slumped back onto her bed.


	7. Old Rivals

**Disclaimer: I own pretty much nothing.**

Chapter 6: Old Rivals

After fetching Dion and taking him back to Ameena's room and leaving Mirage to look over the frail girl, Fayt, Cliff, and Nel headed back to the castle for an audience with the Queen.

"Hey Nel, I was meaning to ask you, what was that about 'The Black Lance', or whatever sometime ago?" Fayt asked.

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that myself. I mean, sure he has a lance that is black, but I doubt that is the major issue." Cliff added.

"Well... I really don't know the details myself either. Most of us know it as a legend of sorts." Nel replied

"Oh?" Cliff sounded interested.

"Fourteen years ago, there was a major invasion by some of the countries in Greeton, it lasted for about four years. During that war, there was a warrior called Kirin Magnus of the Black Lance... The God of Death." Nel said the last phrase with unease.

"Kirin Magnus?"

"Yes, most people called him by that name. But there were a select few who knew him as Shuyin Magna. I think that this friend of yours may be him."

"Okay... So you're saying that Shuyin was involved in some war, but what happened?" Cliff questioned.

"I told you, I don't know the details. That's pretty much what most people know. I think her majesty may know more, but..."

"Yeah, yeah, look, why don't we just ask the guy himself?"

"Cliff, didn't you see the way he reacted after hearing the phrase, 'The Black Lance'? Honestly, I think we shouldn't bother him, he'll probably tell us later." Fayt assured them.

The three entered the audience chamber. Queen Romeria and Magistrate Lasselle were waiting for them. After a short conversation, the Queen thanked Fayt and Cliff for deciding to assist them. As they turned to leave, a muscular man with a Katana at his side came in to report about his mission on some far away land. They watched in slight amusement as he and Lasselle began to bicker, which included the man trying to get a hold of lasselle's head for who-knows-what reasons. The man turned out to be Clair's father, Adray Lasbard, though Fayt had to admit, he couldn't see the slightest resemblance of his daugther in him. It appeared that he used to be quite a warrior, who even clashed with the so-called Black Lance (Nel had heard the name Shuyin from him). Unfortunately, his abilities aren't quite what they were in the past, but he is still recognized as a skilled swordsman. When his little quarrel with the magistrate was over, Adray promptly came over and asked Fayt if he could come with them. Thinking that Adray would follow them whether he said yes or no, Fayt complied, and the four of them exited the castle.

"...you're late" Shuyin emerged from the shadows near the city gate, startling all of them.

"Whoa! Don't scare us like that Shuyin!" Fayt exclaimed.

"Really. Anyway, we were held back for a bit by this guy here-" Cliff was cut off by Adray.

"Wait... Shuyin? The Black Lance! Ha! Fancy meeting you here, it's been ten years hasn't it?"

"...who are you?" Shuyin asked bluntly.

"What, you don't remember? It is I, Adray Lasbard, former leader of the Shield Legion!" He said proudly.

"Oh yeah... you're the guy that kept wanting a rematch..."

"Say, speaking of which, how about a quick duel right now?" Adray dramatically put a hand over his katana.

"I'll pass... We should be going" and with that Shuyin turned and began walking away, the others following him.

"sigh Well, I doubt I'd beat him as I am now anyways, not as young as I used to be." Adray then hurried after them.

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"Captain! A transmission from Mirage came through a short while ago!" Marietta informed Maria, who just entered the bridge.

"Really? What did she say?"

"It appears that she and Cliff are currently stranded on planet Elicoor II, they still have their target with them."

"Good, set the course for Elicoor II, we're heading there immediately"

"Yes ma'am!" Marietta began to work on the navigation control.

Shortly afterwards, The Diplo shot into Gravitic Warp Space, and was off to its destination.

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Fayt and the others had arrived in Arias, and were currently listening to Clair's briefing about the situation while Adray was out looking around the army.

"Although the enemy has superiority in numbers, we can fight them from a distance with runological weapons. We'll use runology to deal with the Dragon Brigade, too. If we fought them head on, we'd be playing right into Airyglyph's hands. We must maintain our distance and avoid close combat at all costs. The operations begins at the break of dawn tomorrow. I want all units ready."

The commanding officers acknowledged the order and left.

"Nel, I have a separate task for you to carry out, apart from the main force. I want you to break through enemy lines and destroy Airyglyph's command center."

"Vox?" Nel asked quizzically.

"That's right. Fayt, I'd also like to request you and your companion's assistance if I may."

"Of course. That's why we're here." Cliff replied.

"Sure." Fayt said

"I never meant for you to become so involved in this, but..." Clair said apologetically.

"We have to involve them. They're a bigger asset in combat than anyone else

in my outfit." Nel assured her.

"Please don't worry about it. I have my own reason for wanting to fight, I

want to end this war as soon as possible..." Fayt told Clair.

"Thank you, both of you. Fayt, Cliff. Please assist Nel in her operation."

"Yes, ma'am!" Cliff replied jubilantly.

"Also, one more thing, we have received information that the enemy recently hired some mercenaries for this battle. They are supposed to be tough, so be on the lookout for them as well." Clair warned.

The group began to prepare equipments for the coming battle. Clair walked up to Fayt later and told him that her father will probably end up following him around even if he was told to stay back. She asked Fayt to look after him, lest her father does something rash. After everything was ready, the group went to bed.

The next day...

"All units, move out!"

With that one command, the battle was on.

While the main force kept the enemy busy, Fayt, Cliff, Nel, Adray, and Shuyin charged into the camp, searching for Duke Vox, the commander. Fayt and Nel moved deftly through the battlefield, dodging, kicking, leaping, and slicing at their opponents with a certain amount of grace. Cliff and Adray, on the other hand, were simply beating the living crap out of anyone who got in there way. Shuyin was staying behind, unleasing little silver spheres that flung his foes back. They were easily carving a path into the heart of the enemy's encampment, when something sharp came pelting out the ground right in front of Fayt.

"What the!" Fayt yelled as he jumped back.

"Hehe, you guys are pretty good, getting this far with such few numbers." a voice chuckled as the sharp metallic object disappeared into the ground again.

"Or maybe its because these Airyglyph soldiers lack training?" said another voice, this one feminine, but also rather cheery.

Two figures leapt out from behind a large boulder and landed in front of the group, one male and one female. The male had short black hair and blue eyes, wore a light-blue short-sleeved shirt, greyish chest- and shoulder- plate, dark-blue pants, blue gloves with red gems etched onto them, simple blue boots, and a flowing red cape. There was a sword scabbard attached to his belt and he held a segmented-looking sword, as if someone drew horizontal lines on the blade. The girl had long, dark-brown hair tied into a ponytail and green eyes, light-blue one piece clothing (short-sleeved top, bottom part has slits on either side like some of those Chinese dresses), black shirt and white pants underneath that, knee-high brown boots, black finger-cut gloves with green gems on them, and two swords attached to her side, one on each side.

"Who are you guys!" Fayt demanded.

"Well, we're mecenary of sorts, hired by Airyglyph to take care of you Aqua-" The girl stopped speaking abruptly upon seeing Shuyin.

"KYAAAAAAAH! SHUNY!" she squealed as she leapt of the boulder and rammed into him, squeazing him tightly. Others in the area sweat-dropped (anime style).

"Uhm... What's going on?" Nel wondered, as the male, who looked surprised at seeing Shuyin for a moment, sighed and leapt off after his partner, trying to pry her off of the poor red-haired warrior (It was obvious he was having difficulty breathing).

"Now, now, sis, I know you're happy to see our old friend here, but you should let go before you squeaze him into two pieces." He grunted as he tugged her away from Shuyin.

"Haa... haa... It's been a while... Drake, Rena..." Shuyin panted slightly.

"Well, well, we certainly didn't expect to find YOU here Shuyin Magna, or should I say 'Kirin Magnus'?" The man named Drake replied.

"Ooooh! Did you miss me Shuny? Did you?" Drake's sister Rena was positively bouncing up and down.

"I see you that you two haven't changed much..." Shuyin remarked.

"Same goes for you..." Drake replied. "As you can tell, we're on opposing sides again..."

Shuyin merely nodded.

"Hey, perfect chance to try and settle the old score, don't you think?" Drake grinned in a friendly way."

"I suppose so..." Shuyin held his lance horizontally in front of him, accepting the challenge.

"Oh, oh! Drake! I wanna go first! Please?" Rena begged.

"Aw man, our first duel in 10 years, I was looking forward to it... Oh, fine, you can go first, stop looking at me like that!" Drake gave in as Rena gave him looked at him with big round eyes (Sorta like Puss in Boots from Shrek II). Rena rejoiced and turned to face Shuyin.

"...you guys go after Vox, at your skill level, I doubt any of you can handle either one of them..." Shuyin advised his companions.

"There's no need." Adray told him. Shuyin gave him a questioning look.

"He's coming to US" Indeed, Duke Vox was flying towards them on his vast dragon mount.

"So you were the ones causing quite a ruckus, defeating Albel and all," he said to Fayt and Cliff.

"Duke Vox! You die here and now!" Nel yelled as she prepared her daggers. The rest took a stance as well.

"Heh, you've got guts, but we'll bury just the same," he sneered as he flew towards them alone, "You two! Quit wasting time and crush those Aquarian scums out there!" he ordered the two siblings.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Drake said dismissively. "Just hurry up and lose Rena, so I can fight him instead."

"HEY!"

"I'm joking, but really, try to end the fight quickly, kay?" Rena smacked her brother's head.

"Come!" Vox charged.

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Duke Vox, despite his age, was an incredible warrior. He guided his mount so that they dodged blows here and there with ease. Adray was hurling crackling balls of energy at him, while Nel was leaping and attempting to knock him off his mount. Fayt went for the dragon instead, his blade glowing with blue energy, "Blade of Fury!" he yelled as he did a series of triple slashes, the mount simply flew higher. Cliff was dodging lance thrusts by Vox himself. As the 4 tried to surround him, Vox simply swung his lance around at fast speed, creating shockwaves that forced them back.

The heated battle continued for several minutes, until Cliff managed to get a hit in. Vox had lowered his dragon so he can aim a thrust at Adray, who parried it with his katana. While the dragon was flying low, Cliff jumped up and brought his fist together. "Hammer of Might!", Cliff sent an explosive pack of energy, the one he used to beat Albel, straight at Vox. He and his dragon staggered and flew up higher, but in their disoriented state, failed to see three other figures gathering energy. "Lighting Blast!" "FireBolt!" Electric bolts shot from Fayt and Nel's hands, while several balls of flames erupted from Adray's outstreched palm. Vox managed to catch one of the electric currents with his lance and struggled against it, but the other two symbological spells hit his dragon dead on. It reared and buckled, nearly knocking Vox off of it's back.

The four fighters panted. They took quite a beating as well. Cliff had earned several cuts from Vox's lance, Fayt had numerous bruises from being whacked by the dragon's tail, Nel was clutching her left arm, the one Vox slammed his lance against. Adray sported a slight burn from the dragon's fire and a few gashes from Vox's slicing, but he seemed unfazed. Vox regained his composure and glared at his enemies.

"You fought well, but I wouldn't have it any other way." He prepared to strike again when a soldier pointed at the sky.

"Look!" He cried.

A large, shimmering, purplish-pink object flew towards where Vox and the others were. They stared at it as it came. It landed near Vox, sent ripples of destruction around it

"Wha, what is this!" Vox screamed as he was engulfed by the destructive shockwave, killing him and his soldiers nearby.

"What was that?" Adray asked after a few seconds of stunned silence.

"You tell me old man." Drake remarked as he looked up into the sky. Rena and Shuyin had stopped battling as well. Rena looked up in puzzlement, while Shuyin frowned as something emerged from the sky.

"The Dragon Brigade?" Nel asked.

"...It's them" Cliff said sternly.

A red battleship, just like the one that attacked the Federation Transport ship Helre, appeared before their eyes. The Vendeeni had come to Elicoor II, and were raining death and destruction upon both forces of Airyglyph and Aquaria alike.


	8. Reunion

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean.**

Chapter 7: Reunion

Sounds of explosion and smoke filled the area around them. Both Airyglyph and Aquarian forces were panicking as they tried to run. The Dragon Brigade flew up and attemped to engage the Vendeeni, but soon fell from the skies like burning moths. The runological weapons the Aquarians had so painstakingly made were proving to be ineffective as well. In matter of minutes the whole battlefield had been turned into a graveyard.

"No... Stop, please stop..." Fayt pleaded in shock as he witnessed death all around him.

"Come on kid, snap out of it, I know what they're after..." Cliff trailed off, as if he said too much.

"Huh? What they're after?"

"Never mind that, let's move!" Cliff grabbed the kid and began to run back towards Arias. Nel and others, including the rather eccentric siblings, followed.

"Holy Apris! Just what is that thing?" Drake exclaimed as he ran alongside Rena and Shuyin.

"I didn't know you were religious." Rena remarked, a bit surprised.

"They're called the Vendeeni, and there's no way to stop them as it is now, so just keep running!" Cliff shouted, ignoring Rena's comment completely. Everyone was eager to comply.

They arrived at Aquaria's headquarters just in time to see Dion being caught by a blast from the Vendeeni's cannon. He tumbled onto the ground and rolled, struggled to get up, then slumped back on the ground.

"No! Dion!" Fayt was going crazy.

"Damn! They really do go to any lengths don't they?" Cliff cried in rage. Suddenly, one of the shots from the ship began heading towards them.

"Drake! Rena!" Shuyin called. The siblings nodded and rushed to his side. Bring the jewels embedded in their gloves together, the two began to chant something, causing the gems to glow. In the meanwhile, shuyin raised the hand with his golden bracelet on, put the other hand over it, and chanted in a different way as well. Nel could've sworn that the black and red symbols on his bracelet began snaking around.

"Guardian Ward!" Drake and Rena simultaneously yelled and turned their hands, so their palms faced the incoming energy of destruction. Two large purplish light emerged from their hands, joined, and became even bigger, creating a barrier of sorts in front of the group, the rest of them were all standing behind the three warriors. "Angelic Shield!" a white barrier of light joined the purple ones, melding with it. The blast struck dead on, the force of the impact causing the three defenders to buckle. After a few seconds as the rest of the group stared in awe/fear, the pack of energy finally dissipated, though whatever that was outside the protection of the shield was burned and destroyed. While successful, the effort had cost the three, the siblings dropping onto the floor gasping for breathe, the red-haired warrior leaning on his lance for support, his face covered in sweat. However, this was only a small reprieve, for more blasts came, incinerating any unfortunate Elicoorian that got engulfed in their light.

"Shoot, there's no end to this!" Cliff was on the edge now, even a Klausian's super phyiscal capabilities meant nothing in the face of a spaceship cannon.

"You said they were after something? Are... are they after me?" Fayt asked quietly.

"Now kid..."

"This, this means that, Hyda IV, the Helre, they're all my fault!"

"Hey, calm down!" Cliff said as he reached for Fayt.

"Let go of me!" Fayt smacked Cliff's hand away, "Why? Why are they doing this? Who... WHO THE HELL AM I?" He finally cracked.

Suddenly, the young Earthling was covered in a bright light. Then something seemed to emerge from his forehead... an angel? Strange symbols surrounded him, then a beam of light shot up towards the Vendeeni ship. The ship was covered in more of those strange symbols, then suddenly, it _disappeared_. Not a trace of it remained. The place was filled with white feathers dropping from the sky, just like Fayt who collapsed onto the ground, unconcious. Everyone stared at his still form, too astonished to speak. Only two people held different expressions.

Cliff had a knowing, yet surprised, look.

'So, his powers manifested eh? And its even more destructive than hers..." The Klausian thought.

On the other hand, Shuyin's face held a hint of loathing and contempt, which no one registered.

'So... They proceeded with another... After what's happened, after their MISTAKE, they risked yet another, experimented with another... They never change... These scums treat life as expendable TOOLS to serve their sick fascinations!' His mind raged, then was abruptly at peace as he collapsed as well.

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"Marietta, are we almost there?" Maria asked anxiously.

"Just a few more days and we will arrive, but Captain, it seems that the Vendeeni got there first."

"I see... Well, we'll just have to make sure they don't get their hands on him then, won't we?"

"Yes ma'am!" Marietta replied cheerfully as Maria put a hand to her forhead.

'What... what is this strange feeling I'm having? Why do I feel like something will happen? Why...?' The young Leader thought as the Diplo continued its journey to Elicoor II, soaring through the Gravitic Warp Space.

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When Shuyin woke up, it was to find himself in Castle Aquaria. In the bed next to his, Fayt was still sound asleep. He got up and gathered his effects (lance, sword, cape etc.) and left the room. The other party members were waiting outside, looking relieved when they saw him. It appeared that Shuyin's two 'acquaintances' were still knocked out as well. Adray had left the group in order to take care of the devastated army.

A few days later, Fayt had finally regained conciousness, though the two siblings were (Whether for good or ill) still roaming the dreamland. After inquiring about the Vendeeni, he suddenly remembered a young man in a runologist's clothing rolling on the ground, victim of a cannon fire. Dion was still alive, but there was nothing they could do. Fayt rushed to get Ameena after seeing Dion. Unfortunately, Dion had suffered too much damage, and died after exchanging a few words with her. Ameena, having already strained herself by coming to Aquios in the first place, died shortly afterwards.

Fayt, still thouroughly shaken by the tragic death of two youths, was walking towards the audience chambers with the rest of his companions (an approach of the Vendeeni warships had been reported). Once inside the audience chamber, Queen Romeria, Lasselle, and Nel immediately began questioning them about the Vendeeni. Then suddenly, Cliff led them outside. A Vendeeni warship was indeed looming down upon the castle.

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Shuyin had recovered mostly, but still had a slightly awkward step. He had to admit, that must've been one of the stupidest things he had done in his life. Sure, he had used that protection spell against dragons, beasts, demons, and whatnot, but to have used it against a top-of-the-line Vendeeni firepower? It had to be pure luck that he and the other two managed to pull it off. Currently, instead of joining the others in what would probably turn out to be a useless chatter and complaints, he decided to go outside and think of what he can do. He really hated having to resort to this, wasn't even sure if it was going to work, but decided that whatever happens, it can't be worse than the crap situation he was in now. He tried to hold back his emotions. Ameena's death did a number on him. He would deal with it later on, he said to himself, but first he will end the turmoil in this world and bring forth the peace she had wished for so much. His last tribute to her.

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"Damn! What now?" Cliff said

"I'll give myself up. Then they'll leave." Fayt told him.

"Fayt, no!" Mirage said firmly.

"That's enough of that. You say that again and I swear I'll smack

you one." Cliff cracked his knuckles angrily.

"Cliff, calm down. Anger won't solve anything! But he's right, Fayt."

"Then what should we do? This country's military doesn't stand a chance

against the Vendeeni ships! Hey... But you chased away the Vendeeni ship

before! Why not do it again?"

"Huh? But-" Nel was confused, how could he not remember literally _evaporating_ that, that, whatever it was. Mirage sighed.

"It's as I thought."

"... You don't remember a thing, do you?" Cliff asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"Wait-another one's coming!" Nel pointed. There was a brief pause, then Cliff smiled.

"Cliff!" Mirage turned to him.

"Yep, it's them. Finally."

The Diplo had arrived at the scene and had engaged the Vendeeni in battle. They exchanged fires until the Vendeeni was finally driven back. But the Quark's flagship had also suffered damage, and was limping away. Then a voice spoke from Mirage's communicator.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." A female voice said.

"Hey, took you long enough." Cliff replied, then Maria materialized in front of them.

"Sorry."

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Once introductions, and a few not-so-satisfactory explanation to the Queen and Nel ("We have a lot of catching up to do, but I promise to explain the best I can later."), were out of the way and done with, Fayt, Maria, and others headed down to the conference room. Shuyin had gone up to the audience chamber after seeing the smoldering Vendeeni ship. Still slightly confused as to what had just happened, he was heading towards the conference room, where he was told the others had gone to.

Inside the room, Fayt was being barraged with more unpleasant news. Cliff and Maria were saying stuff about 'his powers manifesting', 'his destructive capabilities were far greater than Maria's', and other things that made no sense what-so-ever to him. He was extremely distressed upon hearing that Sophia had been captured by the Vendeeni along with his father. What was even more shocking, was the fact that he and Maria were a trpe of living weapons, created by his own father. They had been 'guinea pigs' as Maria called it, of Professor Leingod's experiment, which she sould never forgive him for. Although still having a hard time believing this (even though Maria demonstrated her powers by doing something to a vase, which didn't break even when shot by her gun.), he was all in when it came to rescuing his father and Sophia, which was what Maria was planning on, although to question Professor Leingod, in her case.

Cliff then opened the door, from which Nel, who had obviosly been listening in, blackflipped away from. Maria didn't mind, so Nel joined in on the discussion. Maria's biggest concern was leaving the planet. The whole evacuation procedure will take at least five minnutes, during which the Vendeeni was more than capable of blasting her shuttle to smithereens. They needed some kind of distraction from the ground, long enough for them to make their escape. Cliff suggested the weapon Dion was working on, the Thunder Arrow, the most powerful of Aquaria's runological weapons. Nel thought for a moment, then decided that it would be okay to lend them the weapon, and led the group towards the audience chamber yet again.

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Shuyin was getting a little pissed off now. He had just arrived in the conference room, found it empty, then asked a nearby soldier if he had seen where the people who were here recently had gone to. To the audience chamber, which he had left in order to get here, and now had to go back to. He thought about staying here, perhaps they would come back this way again. Then again, that seemed rather unlikely, so he sighed and began retracing his steps back to the audience chamber.

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In the audience chamber, while asking for permission to borrow the Thunder Arrow, the Queen received an urgent report that the Shrine of Kaddan, which housed the Sacred Orb, was under attack by the Vendeeni. Fayt and Co. quickly set out and managed to relinquish the Vendeeni grasp on the Orb. It turned out to be an OPA, an out of place object, for it possessed power far beyond what should've been possible in this world. Although this did explain how the Aquarians managed to pull of things such as the Thunfer Arrow in the first place. They then headed back to the audience chamber to report that the orb was safe.

The Queen decided that the Thunfer Arrow should be lent to Fayt. She also decided that in order to solve the range problem, for there was no way to attack something so high up in the air while from the ground, they would have to cooperate with Airyglyph, them and their air dragons. Nel and Cliff were to deliver her letter to King Arzei of Airyglyph, while Mirage helped Elena finish the Thunder Arrow. Maria and Fayt were to standby until the messengers returned. Once everyone set off for their tasks, Maria led Fayt outside the castle, to a balcony overlooking the castle grounds. Fayt asked her when she discovered her power, and she told him about her past, beginning from the Aldian attack on her home of Federation Station #17, to when she had triggered her powers to turn a simple quantum torpedo into a missle of destruction that wiped out the Federation's prize ship, the Invisible. When she was finished, she explained that she wanted to know why Fayt's father had performed an illegal experiment on them. In order to ask him directly, she wanted to rescue him, with Fayt's help. Fayt agreed to this, though now that he thought back, that red-haired person who led her away from the Aldians and somehow got her to the Quarks sounded rather familiar. Speaking of red hair, where in the world was Shuyin?

Suddenly, they heard the door open behind them and turned to look around, and saw a figure clad in dark-blue cape staring back at them.

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Shuyin was now **really** going nuts. When he had returned to the chamber, they told him that Fayt and the others were at the Shrine of Kaddan, attempting to save the Sacred Orb from the Vendeeni. After getting _there_, however, it turned out that the group had already left for the castle again. He had just journeyed back from the accursed Shrine, when he found out that nearly everyone had left to take care of their duties (Drake and Rena were STILL knocked out). Still, he learned that two of them had remained behind, and were last seen heading to the balcony. He sighed, finally his search for them, which he had to admit that he should've stayed at the darn conference room, was over. He opened the door and found two people sitting there, one was Fayt Leingod, and the other one was a newcomer. They turned back and looked at him. As he looked at her, he had the feeling that somehow that face was _reeeaaalllyyy_ familiar.

"Oh, Shuyin there you are. Where were you? Anyway, this is Maria, the leader of the Quarks, she'll be joining us from now on."

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Maria couldn't believe it. The man standing before them, had Fayt really called him what she think he called him? It couldn't be... him. Then again, peering at his profile again, there could be no mistake. That hair, those eyes, that cape, the lance, everything was just the way they were 7 years ago (Well, the cape was more ragged and battered). She got up slowly, then began slowly walking towards the man before her, looking completely stunned.

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'Maria, he said' Shuyin thought. 'Is it really her?'

He remained still as the girl began moving towards him, looking stunned as he was.

"...Maria?" He said quietly.

She suddenly leapt into his arms, burying her face in his chest, tears welling up. Surprised at this sudden action, he slowly put his arms around her, patting her lightly.

"Why? Why did you leave me? I thought I'd never see you again..." She choked.

"...Sorry, but I had no choice..." He whispered.

Fayt stood there completely at lost, until he realized that Maria's description of that Red-haired man fit Shuyin exactly. Deciding that he should let them be alone for awhile, he went inside, then suddenly had a question popping into his head 'Wait... She said a **young** man had helped her 7 years ago... Shuyin doesn't look any older than I am, but she said he was probably around 16 or so back then. He **definitely** doesn't look like he's in his 20s to me!' He shrugged and waited inside.

The two stood there for a while, then sat down, Maria still clinging to Shuyin. It took a little more time until she calmed down a bit.

"I didn't expect to see you here..." Maria said quietly, looking up at him.

"Well... I was expecting you, after what Cliff told me." He smiled down at her, "You grew."

"...But you haven't changed at all."

"Hehe, not the first time I heard that since coming to this planet." Shuyin chuckled. Maria pulled something out of her shirt, a locket, the one he had given her so long ago.

"Remember this?"

"...How can I not? Although I didn't expect you to be still carrying it."

Maria smiled and leaned on him again. She had wished for this the last 7 years. Finally, she had found him again. He wrapped his arms around her, and she fell into a light sleep...


	9. The Plan and 27!

_Thanks to all those that reviewed, I always appreciate them, so please continue to leave me some comments! XD! Advice and suggestions also welcome!_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean**

Chapter 8: The Plan and... 27!

Everyone was now inside the audience chamber again. Cliff and Nel had just returned from Airyglyph, bearing the King's answer. He had accepted the story about 'Outer-space beings' and what not, but also insisted that he and the Queen spoke directly. The meeting place was to be one of the halls in the Ancient Ruins of Mosel. Queen Romeria decided to comply to his request, leaving Lasselle in charge and telling him to do his best in completing the Thunder Arrow. Having been chosen as her bodyguards, Fayt and his friends led the Queen towards the Ruins. Shuyin gave a mental sigh.

'Great, just **why** did they have to choose **that** particular place? Its a long walk from here...'

As the group proceeded towards the Sanmite Steppe, a small group of Dragon Brigade soldiers suddenly blocked their way.

"What do you want? We're on our way to speak to your king. Let us pass!" Nel demanded.

"No." The apparent leader answered bluntly.

"WHAT?" Cliff blurted.

"What's the meaning of this?" Maria asked.

"This war is not over. If Lord Vox were still around, he'd have stopped this sissy negotiation by brute force." The leader snarled.

"What?" Fayt said.

"I am Schweimer. Now that Lord Vox and Lord Demetrio are gone, I lead the Dragon Brigade. I will not recognize any peace with the dogs that killed Lord Vox!"

"Does the king know of this?" Queen Romeria inquired.

"Hah! How could he? I should imagine he's waiting for you fools to arrive at the rendezvous point!"

"Cretin! Watch your tongue when you speak to Her Majesty!" Nel drew her daggers threateningly.

"You shall let us pass." the Queen told him calmly.

"And I say you shall not pass! There's no need for peace! Airyglyph rule is the best thing that could happen to Aquaria!"

"You really are an idiot." Cliff sighed.

"You can say that again." Nel agreed.

"All right, whatever. Shall we teach this idiot a lesson or two, guys?" Maria asked.

"Yeah!" said Fayt, already preparing his sword.

The two sides charged. Schweimer had two dragon riders with him. Cliff and Nel faced one of the riders, while Shuyin took the other. Fayt and Maria went against the boss. Nel was leaping about, slashing everytime she got near the rider. Frustrated, the rider began to swing his lance madly, while his mount began thrashing with it's claws as well, trying to get a hold of the pesky Crimson Blade. Cliff took this chance when his foe was preoccupied to jump up and hit him with a Hammer of Might. The shockwave disoriented the rider and the beast, long enough for Nel to yell "Ice Needles!" and sent waves of sharp shards of ice against them. The ice cut into the rider, both cutting and numbing him. Cliff charged right up at the wounded dragon, and delivered 3 consecutive punches (Electric Fist) with so much force that the dragon was flung to the ground. Just as the rider was about to get up, Nel swiftly stabbed him in the back. The rider fell, and Cliff wasted no time unleashing a large sphere of energy to finish up the dragon.

Meanwhile, Fayt and Maria were struggling against Schweimer. He clearly admired Duke Vox just as Demetrio had done, but he was more skilled than the him. He would fly back just as they were about to hit him, then swoop down quickly and pounce. Fayt charged, and so did Schweimer. Just as they were about to collide, Fayt side-stepped, making Schweimer go right past him. As he passed, Fayt quickly slashed with his sword, but was parried by Schweimer's lance. Maria took aim at the rider and fired, but he had excellent reflexes, dodging the bolts swiftly and urging his mount out of the day evasively. He flew straight at her while continuing to dodge her shots. He thought to himself, 'Heh, too easy, that brat can't hit me with his sword as long as I fly high, while the girl seems to have a rather slow shot from... whatever that thing she has is.' Just as he was in stabbing distance with his lance, Maria suddenly shot _multiple _blasts, so that the whole area in front of her was peppered by blaster fire. Surprised, Schweimer jerked back and turned away, only to find Fayt descending upon him, sword held high above his head. Schweimer barely managed to parry, then flew higher, as a thin blue light shot clear through his torso. The rider gasped and fell from his mount onto the ground below. Fayt gave a slight cheer as Schweimer's dead body hit the floor.

However, the fallen rider's mount became a problem. It roared and swooped down on the two youth, breathing flames and swiping with it's claws. Fayt got caught in the fire and jumped back, clutching his singed arm. Maria took potshots at the dragon in order to draw it's attention. The beast dodged the shots and began soaring straight at her, ignoring the wounds it was receiving from her gun. Maria let out a frustrated growl and leapt sideways, allowing the dragon to fly past her, and turned around to take aim at it's back. But the dragon was already lying on the ground, knocked out cold. Shuyin was lowering his lance. Fayt and Maria looked towards the rider he had been fighting, and saw that rider was trapped beneath his own mount, both unconcious. Cliff and Nel brought the Queen and joined them. Fayt noted that while Shuyin cut down monsters and scums such as bandits, but usually spared most average soldiers. Shrugging mentally, he and the others continued their long journey to the Ancient Ruins of Mosel.

On their way to the Ruins, the group passed by the Lost City of Surferio, where they met up with Roger and his so-called gang and rivals. In order to search for the treasures described in some mysterious books they found, Roger decides to join up with Fayt once again. With a new member (or not-so-new), Fayt and the rest continued entered a cave and exited it on the other side, the scorching Mosel Dunes.

"Argh! This place is **burning**!" Fayt exclaimed.

"Yeah, no kidding, how are we supposed to get throught **this**!" Cliff added.

"Hmmm... if I remember correctly, there should be some oasis scattered here and there in this deserrt..." Roger recalled.

"Okay, so where are they?" Cliff asked.

"How should **I** know you duffus! Don't you realize how huge this place is!"

"Why you..."

"Guys, guys, calm down, you'll just drain yourselves even more." Nel intervened.

"Ah, you worry for my well-being? I am so touched beautiful miss!" Roger said in a supposedly-gallant-manly manner.

"...on second thought, carry on Cliff." Nel said in a flat tone.

"So, I guess we should scout out the oasis as we move on in order to keep ourselves cool." Maria commented.

"...Your majesty, are you sure you want to go through this?" Nel asked concernedly.

"I'll be fine, let's keep an eye out for those oasis." Queen Romeria assured her.

"Geez... where should we start?" Fayt wondered, staring out at the vast sea of sand and rock.

"...over there." Shuyin pointed.

Since no one else had any other suggestion, the group followed Shuyin, occasionally running into some of the desert monsters. After they walked for a while, the group had indeed stumbled across an oasis. Burning with heat and thirst, everyone took a quick rest. They continued to follow Shuyin's directions, which never failed to take them to one oasis after another, until they finally arrived at the Ancient Ruins.

"Wow, what an old clump of rock." Cliff said as he stared at the shabby ruins.

"...beasts that have adapted to this environment has taken residence in here, be on your guard." Shuyin cautioned as he walked on ahead.

Sure enough, the place was **filled** with powerful, ferocious beasts. How the King might've possibly gotten through these was almost puzzling. Shuyin, Fayt, and Cliff went up front and slashed apart any beasts that came charging at them, while Maria and Nel stood back to guard the Queen. After quite a bit of fighting, they finally made it to a hall with a circular table in it, where King Aiyglyph XIII, or King Arzei, and Count Woltar. Once greetings were over and done with, they went into discussion about how to deal with these new invaders. Even thought Airyglyph had control over some air dragons, they were not big or strong enough to carry the Thunder Arrow, and having multiple dragons carrying it would cause movement and coordination problems. In the end, Arzei and Romeria decided to attempt to capture an air dragon of immense size and strength that was called, The Marquis. Shuyin flashed an almost invisible smile upon hearing that name. Everyone except Maria, who was right next to him, failed to notice.

"What's so funny?" She asked him.

"Huh? Oh, it's... nothing."

"I don't think you would grin for 'nothing'." Maria pressed on.

"Well... Let's just say its an old memory for now, okay?" Shuyin replied, a more visible grin on his face.

"Hmm... Alright, I'll let it pass for now." Maria said mischievously.

"Albel?" Nel's voice snapped their attentions back to the meeting.

"Do you object? I, for one, am quite fond of him. What do you think, Romeria?" Arzei asked.

"I consent. This Albel shall travel with the party... You do not mind, do you?" Romeria consented.

"I personally don't mind, but..." Fayt trailed off.

"It doesn't matter what we think. The problem's gonna be what Albel thinks." Cliff said.

"Then it is settled. Albel will be waiting for you in Airyglyph. You can meet him there." Arzei told them.

"We understand." Fayt acknowledged.

"We will be expecting you."

"I must ask that you take us to Peterny, Clair can escort us from there. After that, you may head to Airyglyph." Romeria told her 'guards'.

"Yes, your majesty." Nel answered.

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Once the group was back in Peterny, Clair bid Nel and the others good luck and left with the Queen. The rest of the group headed to Airyglyph and met up with Albel, who was locked up in a dungeon at the time. It appeared that Duke Vox had accused him of treason when Albel let Fayt go at the Kirlsa Training Facility and failed to stop them from taking the copper later. At first, Albel the Wicked merely laughed at the idea of beings from another world, but as Woltar got serious and told him that he was to aid the Aquarians in capturing the Marquis, he had no choice but to take it somewhat seriously. Not at all happy about working with 'Aquarian Scums', Albel was released and joined the group on their quest to secure the almighty lord of air dragons.

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Fayt and Co. arrived in Peterny pretty late, and decided to spend a night at the inn. Since they were free until the next day, the group discussed what to do until then. Nel mentioned that there was a Inventor's Guilds nearby, where one could sign up as an inventor and submit any new things he or she creates. It was supposedly quite a hit these days. Seeing as there was nothing better to do, they decided to check it out. Once inside the building, they introduced themselves to a girl named Welch, who assisted the Guild Master. After being briefed on what the Inventor Guild was all about (Invent, file patent, hope its not some piece of crap, etc.), they decided to try it out.

"All right, now we just need some basic information about each of you, you know, like name, age, and occupation." Welch told them and gestured at Fayt. "Okay! You first!"

"Umm... My name is Fayt Leingod, age 19, I'm a college student from Ear-, I mean, an engineer from Greeton." Fayt quickly corrected himself. He didn't think that revealing the fact about 'Beings of another world' to common civilians was such a good idea.

"Wait, college student? Engineer? You're kinda confusing me here." Welch said.

"Oh, I said I'm an engineer from Greeton." Fayt repeated.

"Okay, thanks, next!" She turned to Cliff.

"The name's Cliff Fittir, age 36. I'm a Greeton engineer like the kid here." Cliff said smoothly.

"Oh, are you guys partners? That's nice, anyways, next!" She faced Nel.

"Nel Zelpher, age 23, agent of Aquaria."

"Oh? Now that's rather unusual. And you?" She nodded at Albel.

"Albel Nox... 24, Captain of the Black Brigade... Anything else, worm?" Albel snarled as if he thought this whole thing was pointless and stupid.

"Ooooookay... You next!" Welch said after giving Albel a funny look.

"Maria Traydor, age 19, umm... just an acquaintance of the engineers" Maria said uncertainly.

"Uh-huh, right." Welch jotted that down. "what about you kid?"

"Roger S. Huxley, and I'm **not** a kid! I'm a real man of 12 years of age, ya know! Oh yeah, I'm also the boss of the best gang in Surferio." Roger said hotly.

"Suuuure you are." Welch finally turned to the last one. "And you are?"

"...Shuyin Magna, age 27, wanderer." Shuyin said simply. He noticed that all of them were staring at him. "What?"

"TWENTY-SEVEN!" They erupted.

"...yes?"

"What the? You look around Fayt and Maria's age! But 27!" Nel exclaimed.

"Seriously, you made me think you were still a kid or something!" Cliff said.

"...The worm is actually **older** than I am?" Albel said with hidden astonishment.

"Uh... I know they treat me like a kid when I'm 12, but 27, that's waaay extreme."

"Wait a sec..." Cliff thought. "If you're 27 now, then 7 years ago... Wha- you were TWENTY back then!"

"...yes, what of it?." Shuyin didn't see what the fuss was all about.

"You know, you really don't look that old, that's probably why." Maria told him.

"...Oh." was all Shuyin said.


	10. Duel in Peterny

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean and Rurouni Kenshin techniques.**

_A/N: So far, the story has been a slight modification of the actual storyline, but I will try to add more original stuff soon!_

Chapter 9: Duel in Peterny.

The group had just finished registering at the Inventor's Guild and was leaving the headquarters. Everyone was still murmuring about Shuyin's age, to which he was totally indifferent. They decided to grab something to eat at the town center. As they exited the west side of the town of Peterny and got to the center, a loud voice brought them to a sudden halt.

"SHUNY!" There was a blur as something crashed right into the red head's back.

"You're so mean! How could you leave without us?" Rena pouted.

"Sorry Shu, the moment she found out that you left, she came pelting over here." Drake said apologetically.

"...what is it now?" Shuyin asked.

"Aw... Come on! Did you forget? We never finished our fight back there!" Rena whined. Shuyin raised an eyebrow towards Drake.

"Heh, you know what she's like, stubborn beyond belief like some sort of demon ya kno-" He was cut off by Rena who whacked him across the head.

"OW!"

"Hmph, serves you right!"

"Fine, but what about you Drake? I don't think you're one to pass on a duel to your sister..." Shuyin asked.

"Bleh, I would love to fight you, but I had to CARRY this little beast all the way here from Aquios! Got no strength left." Drake muttered.

"Did she give you 'The Look' again?"

"...yeah."

"Sigh... Well, I have nothing to do anyway."

"Yay! Let's do this!" Rena said cheerfully.

Shuyin and Rena faced each other while everyone else backed off. Soon a crowd had gathered to watch the match. Shuyin held his lance vertically in front of him while Rena unsheathed her twin blades. The design of her two swords was identical, except the fact that there were different symbols inscribed in each blade. Each of the hilts also had some sort square extension on the bottom of it. They stood facing each other for a moment, Rena's face was gleaming with excitement, then they charged.

"I don't know about this fight, won't she get hurt?" Fayt asked his companions.

"Seriously, Shuyin is darn strong after all, does she even stand a chance?" Cliff added.

"Don't you worry about her. Sure, I doubt that she can best him, but Shu won't be able to beat her so easily." Drake replied calmly.

"How can you be so sure?" Maria asked him.

"Because," Drake said, "She used to be one of Greeton's Four Beasts, the Soaring Hawk."

"What! SHE is the Soaring Hawk!" Nel was stupefied. The others looked at them in confusion.

"The Soaring Hawk? Four Beasts? What's that?" Roger asked.

"The Four Beasts were Greeton's best warriors during the Invasion 14 years ago, don't you even know THAT you useless maggot?" Albel sneered at the little Menodix.

"Hey! Shut up!" Roger snapped back.

"The Four Beasts were warriors of incredible abilities who could match the Captains of the Airyglyph brigades and the Crimson Blade back in those days. I suppose one from that group **can** certainly hold their own against the Black Lance." Nel explained while the other two were locked in a battle of insults.

"Haha, it's a bit more than that. You see, Shu used to be one of us too." Drake clarified.

"Really? Wow, guess he really is strong, the best of Greeton... Wait a minute, did you say 'us'? Maria inquired.

"Yep. I was the Lashing Viper," Drake said proudly, "Shu there was called the Rising Dragon, and the other one, was called the Prowling Lupine".

"Fancy names." Cliff remarked.

"Hehe, I guess so. Anyways, it was said that only the other three Beasts and a few of the Aquaria and Airyglyph warriors, such as the Crimson Blades and the Captains of the Three Brigades could face him and survive."

"My father?" Albel and Nel said at the same time.

"Yeah, although now that Woltar and Adray are old, and the others are all dead, I guess only my sister and I stand a chance against him as of yet."

Meanwhile, the two warriors were engaged in a fierce fight. Shuyin dropped to the ground and sweeped at Rena's legs, but she leapt high into the air. As she fell down headfirst, she brought her twin blades in front of her and began to twirl very fast, which turned her into a miniature tornado as she came crashing down on top of Shuyin. He dodged quickly, and the spot he was standing on a split second ago had a small crater carved in it. Rena immediately moved into the offensive, slashing and stabbing at blinding speed. Shuyin held his ground, parrying the blows with his lance with equal swiftness. The two then jumped back in opposite directions, away from each other. Shuyin stood sideways so that his left side faced Rena and held his lance horizontally in his right hand, pointed straight at her, while he placed his left hand just below the blade of his lance. Maria recognized that stance from 7 years ago, on the Planet Telix. It had pierced the heart of Shuyin's foe back then. In response, Rena slid her left leg to the side while bending her right one, and raised both arms to the side.

Shuyin dashed towards Rena at an incredible speed, thrusting his lance towards her at the last second. But Rena had bent down even lower then leapt into the air once again, and this time she moved even quicker, which made her look like she was flying at high speed. As she landed behind Shuyin, he quickly spun around and slashed horizontally, which she blocked with her swords while her back was still facing him. She then flipped as she crossed her blades and landed behind Shuyin again. Upon landing, she swung both blades to the either side, which would've cleaved Shuyin in half if he hadn't leapt up into the air away from her. They continued to trade blows for a few minutes. Both panted slightly as the crowd cheered in amazement at their performance.

"Wow, she really is good." Fayt said, awestruck.

"You said it, he has the power to dispose an air dragon with ease, yet she can keep up with him quite easily." Nel agreed.

"Oh you haven't seen anything yet, because the real show begins now." Drake smirked.

Rena brought the end of the hilts of her blade together. The extensions in the bottom of them acted as a sort of latch, connecting the two swords into one single double-edged blade (Think Darth Maul from Star Wars). She then muttered something that caused one blade to glow red and the other blue. In the meanwhile, Shuyin discarded his cape and held his lance by his side with one hand, while raising the other hand right before his face. The two then charged at each other yet again.

"Molten Wave!" Rena swung the red blade at Shuyin, which caused a wall of flames to charge at him. Shuyin raised his free hand above his head.

"Aqua Sphere!" A huge blue ball of water appeared above him, and he hurled it at the wall of flames before him. The fire and water struck each other and dissipated.

The entire crowd, excluding Fayt's group and Drake, scattered after witnessing such powers.

Shuyin continued to run towards Rena and then struck with his lance.

"Dragon's Maw!" Three copies of the lance appeared, one slicing upwards, the other slicing downwards, and the third stabbing straight, which made it look like a jaw of some beast chomping (the stab was probably the equivalent of the tongue). Rena quickly jumped back away from the reach of the lance. She then spun her dual blade so fast that it appeared to be a round disk.

"Feather Fury!" She swung the spinning blade side to side continuously, sending multiple thin white bolts towards Shuyin.

"Granite Spire!" Shuyin placed a palm on the ground and huge pillars of rock rose up and took the blow instead. When the spires turned to rubble, Rena was already close to Shuyin. The two swung at each other again for a while, and then backed off.

"Whew, let's take a break now shall we?" Rena gasped as she disconnected her blades and sheathed them. Shuyin nodded and retrieved his cape. The rest of the group was rooted to the spot.

"Wha, what the heck was that!" Cliff exclaimed in surprise.

"Awesome!" said Roger.

"Hmm…" Drake scratched his chin as the Shuyin and Rena approached them.

"Weee! That was fun!" Rena squealed.

"Hey Shu, it seems like your skills got rather rusty." Drake commented. Shuyin simply shrugged as people began returning to the center. Amazingly, despite all the ruckus they caused, there were no damage to the town, except the pile of rubble in one corner. He then went towards one of the table and sat down.

"Rusty?" Fayt asked.

"Yeah. Normally, he wouldn't have had this much trouble with Rena. Either he was holding back or he hasn't trained properly for a while now."

"You mean he could've easily beaten her?" Cliff inquired.

"Well, not easily, but I'm surprised Rena gave him such a hard time." Drake shrugged.

"We can think about that some other time, let's have some food like we planned" Maria said as she went to join Shuyin. The others followed and ordered some food. Once everyone was done with their little supper, they headed back to the inn to get some rest.

The next day, they proceeded to the Mountains of Barr, where the Marquis was supposed to reside within a cave. Numerous dragons blocked their way, and by the time they reached a clearing, everyone was totally worn out. Suddenly, huge feral dragons swooped down and grabbed the entire group. Shuyin and the two former Four Beasts put up a fight, but seeing that the rest of the group had been ferried off (and Shuyin had a good idea where), he told the siblings to stop resisting and they too were carried away. Just as Shuyin suspected, they were dropped off at what appeared to a nest of little dragon younglings. They began charging up towards the summit, slashing apart anything that got in their way. Eventually they reached a cave, where they fought a Zombie Dragon, then retrieved a dragon's windpipe, which they forged into a special flute.

Afterwards, they finally reached the gates to the chamber in which the Marquis resided. Of course, getting there took quite a bit of work. They had to activate some strange floor panels in a dragon lab of sorts, fight through a fiery cave, meet Vanilla the rabbit, go back to the Airyglyph aqueducts, bring a special material back to the rabbit, who forged a Ring of Disintegration, a necessary item in removing the boulders barring their paths to the Marquis' chamber.

"Huff huff, we're… finally… here… dammit…" Cliff panted.

"What? Tired already, worm?" Albel said in a strained voice.

"Oh shut up Albel, you're falling apart as well" Cliff retorted.

"So, we're here at last…" Maria said, facing the huge twin doors. At that moment, a horde of fiends came charging at them.

"Great, what now?" Fayt said exasperatedly.

"We'll handle it, the rest of you move on ahead." Drake told them as he, Rena, and Shuyin turned to face the horde.

Fayt and the others nodded and entered the chamber, while the three Beasts began slaughtering the monsters.

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"…he has been located at last." A female voice spoke.

"About time too, he has managed to elude us for the past few months." A young male voice said.

"It is time, now that the ritual has been completed, we are ready to deal with him ourselves…" another male's voice, an older one, informed the others.

"There will be no escaping this time…" the younger male said.

"We must be cautious, if the darkness is unleashed, it would be problematic even for us."

"Let's worry about that when the time comes shall we?" The female suggested.

"Very well, let us go… to Elicoor II." The older male declared.

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"It's been a while, warrior." The Marquis, or Crosell, said to Shuyin.

"Indeen Crosell, though I never thought we'd meet again" He replied to the majestic air dragon.

While the Beasts were fending off the monsters of the Lava Cave, Fayt, Maria, and others had managed to somehow subdue the lord of air dragons. It appeared that Crosell and Shuyin were acquaintances, which further increased everyone's curiosity about the mysterious warrior. The fact that Crosell regarded Shuyin differently than he did with other humans was interesting as well. Drake had suggested that perhaps Shuyin's supposed experience in Dragon Lore has something to do with it. Crosell had given them permissin to ride on his back, and so they flew back to Aquios, where the Thunder Arrow was prepared.

"I know that this might be quite insulting to you Crosell, but please bear with it." Shuyin requested.

"I have agreed to it, and breaking one's word is despicable." Crosell replied.

The moment they landed in Aquios, the runologists of Aquaria immediately set to work on attaching the weapon to Crosell's back. Meanwhile, Shuyin and the others, including Mirage who had been helping with the Thunder Arrow's construction, gathered in one of the guest rooms. Drake and Rena, on the other hand, were observing the process of the weapon preparation outside.

"So... I guess the battle will start pretty soon." Nel broke the silence.

"Yeah." Maria said.

There was a moment of silence.

"Say... I've been wondering Shuyin, just how do you tie into all this? I mean, can you tell us what happened here 14 years ago with the war and all?" Fayt asked.

"Yeah, you seem to be quite involved in a lot of things here..." (Mirage)

"Even Ameena seemed to know you, remember what she said? 'I'm glad I saw you again Shu'. Right before she died." (Cliff)

Shuyin stiffened and didn't say anything.

"It's okay if you'd rather not talk about it." Maria said hastily, and everyone else nodded in agreement. After a few seconds, Shuyin sighed.

"Very well, I suppose I should clarify some things. I'll tell you about my life 14 years ago here in Elicoor II."


	11. Reminiscence 1: Four Beasts

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean or Kenshin stuff.**

Chapter 10: Reminiscence 1 - Four Beasts

"I'll tell you... about 14 years ago..." Shuyin told everyone in the room. Suddenly the door opened and two figures walked in.

"So they don't know anything huh? Just as I thought..." Drake said as he entered with his sister.

"Would you mind helping me a little? I don't think I remember everything."

"Sure, I'll do my best."

"Very well then..." and Shuyin drew up the memories he had buried away nearly 10 years ago.

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The city bustled with liveliness, as people went on with their everyday business. Within this city stood a majestic castle, and in one of it's chambers a young boy stirred from his bed.

"...where am I?" The red-haired child slowly got up from the bed he was on.

"Whew, thank goodness, thought you were dead after all this time." A youth with short black hair spoke beside him.

"Where am I? What happened?" The child asked the stranger.

"Calm down, you're in the castle of Greeton. My sis and I found you unconscious in the middle of forest while we were taking a break."

"Greeton?" The child seemed confused.

"Yeah, say, where are you from? You sure don't look like a native around these parts, where are your parents?" at this the child's blue eyes suddenly lost the light in them and became cold.

"They're dead... everyone... dead..." He said in an emotionless tone.

"Oh, sorry." Several uncomfortable minutes passed by in silence.

"Oh yeah, I haven't introduced myself have I? I'm Drake Raiyu, what's your name?"

"...Shuyin Magna."

"Nice to meet you Shuyin, you must be hungry, let's go get a bite to eat kay?" Drake said pleasantly and led him out of the room. They strolled by numerous hallways until they reached the castle gate. A guard sprang to salute.

"Sir!"

"Damien I told you that you can drop the formalities and all." Drake told the guard.

"Heh, sorry kid. Oh, is that the boy you and Rena found last week?" Damien said.

"Yep, I was thinking about giving him a look around and getting him something to eat. Seems like he's a foreigner."

"Well have fun then! By the way, your sister just left the castle too, so I daresay you'll meet up with her soon enough."

"Oh is she now? Thanks Damien, later!" Drake then led Shuyin outside towards the city. He showed him around and then entered a small restaraunt near the center of the city. It appeared that everyone knew Drake and showed a good deal of respect towards him, despite the fact that he was quite young. Once in the restaurant they ran into Drake's sister, Rena Raiyu, who was given equal treatment as Drake. Drake introduced the two.

"Hi Shuny! I'm Rena, nice to meet you!" Rena seemed to have a permanent air of cheerfulness about her. Shuyin returned the greeting and the three ate their meals and headed back to the castle. The siblings then took Shuyin to the training grounds, where several soldiers were busy sparring or doing weapon drills. Everyone greeted the siblings and some decided to spar with them. Amazingly, all of them lost spectacularly to the two young children.

"Argh! Man just how are you two so good? I mean you're only what, 16?" One of the defeated men said exasperatedly.

"Actually I'm 15 and Rena's 12." Drake replied. "And we've been through hell-training ever since we were toddlers by our grandfather, he used to be one of the best warriors in Greeton, so yeah."

"Speaking of which, how old are you Shuny?" Rena asked.

"12."

"Hey! We're the same age! Yay!" Rena jumped up and down. Shuyin looked at her with a slightly amused look.

"Our parents died when she was born, and I think I pampered her a bit too much. Add the training she's received on top of that and man, you have one hell of a problem." Drake whispered to Shuyin.

"I heard that!" Next thing they knew, Drake was on the floor face-first.

"Say, do you know how to fight kid?" One of the soldiers asked.

"...a little."

"Really? Then why not have a little spar with us? Men should be fighting as soon as they can, builds character you know. Err... women too, of course." The soldier hastily as he felt Rena's glare.

"Sure, I guess."

"Great, what weapon will you be using?" Shuyin looked at the collection of training weapons and chose a wooden staff. The soldier faced him with the same item. The soldier took the initiative and lunged with his staff, but Shuyin merely cocked his head sideways and dodged it. When the soldier swung the staff sideways he leapt and landed far away from the soldier. He then stood sideways and held the staff near the end with one hand and placed the other hand just below the other end that faced the soldier (This is kinda like Saito's Gatotsu from Rurouni Kenshin, only with a lance). Then, just as the soldier turned around, Shuyin dashed off at great speed, then thrust the lance towards him. The blow connected and the soldier was sent flying into a nearby wall. Everyone in the area stared at the red-haired child, while Drake and Rena traded a knowing glance.

The three gathered at Drake's room and he spoke to Shuyin.

"Hey Shu, there is a tournament coming up soon, and it seems like you're pretty strong, care to enter?"

"Can I?" Shuyin asked.

"Sure, there are no restrictions, so age, gender, none of these matter. You're allowed to bring non-blade weapons, and you used that staff pretty good out there. Come on, it will be fun! Rena and I always joined up!" Drake said pleasantly.

"Yup! We're in the top 4 ranking! We also happen to be knights in the army for that, despite our age." Rena said proudly.

"I suppose its fine..." Shuyin shrugged.

"One other thing, there's supposed to be something special about this particular tournament, but apparently we won't find out what that is until its over, strange huh?" Drake turned to his sister.

"Oh well, as long as we win it, who cares?" Rena said cheerfully.

"The tournament is going to be held next week, so let's get ready by then." Drake told Shuyin.

"But first, lets get some sleep now, its already late."

The other two nodded and went to bed, Shuyin slept on the mattress that was brought up to the Raiyus' room.

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The week passed by, and the day of the tournament came. It was held in a huge arena set up in the castle grounds. Nearly everyone in the city came to watch and hundreds of fighters came to participate in the event. It seemed that Drake or Rena usually won all the tournaments ever since they began participating. According to Drake, there was one other kid his age that won over them sometimes. These three were rivals in a sense, since it was always one of them who won the event. Shuyin and the siblings, who had become fast friends, registered for the game and went into the waiting room, where many fighters had already gathered. Soon a young boy with spiky blue hair and sharp emerald eyes came up to them.

"Hey Kain, been a while!" Drake greeted the newcomer.

"Sure has guys. This time I'm definitely going to win, you better watch out." Kain told the siblings confidently.

"Hmph, I beat you fair and square last time, I'll do it again." Rena told him.

"I'm telling you, that was a fluke! Besides, I beat you more than you beat me anyways!" Kain snapped back.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Happens all the time." Drake whispered to Shuyin. Kain noticed the red-head and went up to him.

"Who's this?"

"This is our new friend Shuyin, he seemed to be pretty good so we brought him along with us."

"Oh, pretty good huh?" Kain looked at Shuyin, "well, just hope that you won't face me, cause I won't hold back just because you're a rookie." Then he walked off.

"Who was that?" Shuyin asked.

"That's Kain Tyran, the one we were talking about. You better watch it, because he means it when he says he won't hold back." Drake explained.

"Ha! I can beat him to the ground anytime!" Rena proclaimed energetically.

The battles began early in the morning and lasted until late in the afternoon, when the onlookers slept in tents set up outside the arena. Shuyin, Drake, Rena, and Kain all made it past the first day. The contestants had been whittled down about halfway, and Drake explained that these tournaments typically took about 3 days. The first day was more of a preliminary round, the second day narrowed down the remaining people until the last 4 remained for the final battle on the last day. The three friends talked about the days events in their room back at the castle.

"Man, that was soooo boring! I hoped that I would face Kain or sis at least." Drake complained.

"Shouldn't you be glad? If we had fought today I would surely have won." Rena teased him.

"Oh, sure you would."

"By the way, you were awesome out there too Shuny!" Rena turned to speak with Shuyin.

"True, you beat all your opponents while barely moving at all, pretty impressive." Drake agreed.

"Its nothing, they were just too weak." Shuyin said bluntly.

"Where did you learn how to fight? I can't recognize your style of fighting from anything I know of." Drake asked.

"I was taken into a school when I was 7." Drake noticed how Shuyin's eyes had gone cold again, and made a mental note not to ask him about his past from now on. Rena thought the same.

"Anyway, looking forward to tomorrow, hopefully these next bunches are better." (Rena)

"Seriously, I expected more since this is the 'Special' tournament and all." (Drake)

"We should get some rest now, its pretty late." The Raiyus agreed and the three drifted off into sleep.

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The next day was more or less uneventful. The opponents were considerably stronger than the last bunch, but the four 'rivals' swept throught the entire thing. By the end of the day, the four chosen for the final match were none other than Shuyin, the Raiyus, and Kain. Kain was a bit surprised that Shuyin had gotten this far in his first ever game, and seemed to be giving a lot more attention now. Once back in their room, Drake and Rena further explained how the final battle is fought. All four contestants were to enter in a free-for-all match until only one remained standing. Unlike the other two rounds, where lethal weapons were prohibited, the final allowed the use of any kind of weapons the finalists desired. Drake assured Shuyin that people rarely died during these matches, since the finalists knew better than to kill simply because they could, although Kain left people half-dead more often than not. Usually, Drake, Rena, and Kain ended up knocking out the fourth competitor and then engaged in an all-out battle. They showed their 'true' weapons to Shuyin (You know what they are if you've been reading).

"But our real secret weapon is THIS." Rena indicated the green gem on her glove, while Drake did the same with his red one.

"These gems contain powerful spirits. We managed to pass the test of the Guardians." Drake told Shuyin.

The Guardians were spiritual beings that resided in the sacred temple near the castle. Those who challenged them and won were awarded Spirit Gems, which grants the user enhanced abilities. However, the trials are extremely difficult, and only few have ever managed to pass it. Currently, the only people who have managed to acquire the Gems were Drake, Rena, and Kain.

"How about you Shuny? What will you be using?" Rena asked.

Shuyin grabbed his bundles, which Drake had brought with him when they found Shuyin in the forest, and took out his black spear.

"Hey, pretty neat. Wait, those markings on it kinda looks like the ones on your bracelet." Drake observed.

"This bracelet... I suppose that it is similar to those Spirit Gems of yours." Shuyin said.

"Really?" (Rena)

"This lance, this armor, and this bracelet are the treasures of my school. It is said that only the founder of the school, the original owners of these items, could use them to their full potential. However, so far I have been unable to completely unlock its capabilities. My master had said that I lacked something... I don't know what that is..."

"Uh-huh, well I bet that you'll figure it out sooner or later Shu, c'mon lets get some sleep, tomorrow's the big day!"

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The day of the finals have arrived. The four finalists made their way onto the arena. Cheers from the crowd shook the air as each of them headed off to one corner of the stage. The king, presiding in a balcony that offered an excellent view of the whole arena, spoke a few words, reminding everyone about that 'special' something. Unlike previous battles, everyone had armors and actual weapons equipped (Drake and Rena are wearing the exact same thing I explained in chap 7. Shuyin is same as always except without the cape). Kain wore a simple black pants, white battle garb with simple armor, similar to Drake. His weapon were sharp steel claws (Like Zhang He from Dynasty Warriors), and he had blue gems etched onto his gloves. They readied their weapons, and when the gong sounded, all four of them charged.

Kain decided that he would take care of the 'rookie' as always, while Drake and Rena faced off against each other. He slowly circled around Shuyin, then without warning pounced, claws slashing away. But all he hit was thin air, since Shuyin was already in mid-air. He swung his lance hard as he descended. Kain parried the attack, but the impact caused him to slide back a bit. Snarling, Kain crouched low and charged, slashing and stabbing fiercely. Shuyin fended off the attacks and struck back. The two were engaged in an even fight for a short while, until both leapt away from each other. Kain then smirked and raised his hand. The gems began to glow as he chanted something, then suddenly he was engulfed in a brilliant blue light. When the light cleared, Kain was shrouded in a strange blue aura, and Shuyin sensed the sudden increase in Kain's powers.

"Razor Pulse!" Kain yelled as his claws glowed white and he began slashing diagonally. Thin, long white beams shot out from each swing, cutting lines into the ground as it charged towards Shuyin. He dodged as fast as he could, but while he was occupied with the beams, Kain was already above him. Kain dropped down and lunged with his claws, forcing Shuyin to jump away. The ground split where Kain had struck, who was already dashing towards Shuyin at incredible speed.

'This guy's way faster than before! I suppose those gems really do increase you powers' Shuyin thought as he dodged the frenzied attacks. Unfortunately, Kain put in an extra spurt of speed and caught Shuyin by surprise, landing a blow straight across his chest. He immediately swung again with the back part of his claw, which was the blunt side, sending Shuyin crashing into the wall with such force that a segment of it fell on top of him.

"Hehe, told you I wouldn't hold back, _rookie_." Kain sneered as he observed the rubbles. Suddenly, a thin white light rose to the sky from a large piece of rubble, then grew into a wide pillar of light, shattering the debris. Shuyin stood up, his clothes torn and bloody, but unfazed. Kain looked surprised but then growled as he rushed towards his foe again. The next thing he knew, the opposite end of Shuyin's lance (the part without the blade) was driven into his torso, and he was flung back to the other side of the arena. Kain coughed and tried to figure out what happened. Perhaps this was the charging stab attack Drake had told him about? (Gatotsu, duhr). Snarling, he drew back one arm than lunged it forward with all his might.

"Piercing Darts!" Five strands of energy, one from each blade of his 'claw', surged towards Shuyin like five javelins. Shuyin held up a hand and muttered "Angelic Shield" and a white barrier blocked the attacks. Staring in disbelief, Kain noticed that Shuyin's eyes had become, well, different. The once sapphire blue eyes were now sharp feral yellow. The lanceman dashed and yelled "Dragon's Maw!" and the lance split in three, two slicing sideways towards each other and one lunging out straight. Kain managed to dodge the lunge, but was caught by the 'bite', though by not by the blade. Gasping in pain, he leapt back and clutched his left arm, which had been caught between the 'jaws'.

'Grrr... I will NEVER lose to some NEWBIE!' He thought savagely and began dashing around madly, swiping here and there everytime he got close to Shuyin. Shuyin dodged and parried, but was still being cut in several places. He then raised his hand, which glowed with a white aura, and struck the ground (Debris Shower!), sending chuncks of rocks all over the place. Kain grunted in surprise as he shredded a huge boulder hurling towards him into ribbons. Just behind the boulder, however, was Shuyin with one hand held directly in front of Kain.

"Lightning Surge!" Waves of electricity struck Kain, hurling him right towards where the siblings were battling (both had used their gems as well). Startled by the sudden intrusion, the two staggered a bit, just enough time for Shuyin to leap over them and swing his lance at Rena. Caught unawares, the handle part of the lance struck Rena right in the stomache, and sent her skidding across the floor a good distance. Drake quickly parried Shuyin's flurry of attacks with his sword. Then he leapt back and when he swung the sword this time, it _split_. The blade separated at each of the 'lines' on the sword (Ivy from Soul Caliber II), and he swung it like a whip. He continued to press his attacks, driving Shuyin back until he was pressed against the wall. As Drake struck downward hard, Shuyin swiftly rolled sideways and rammed right into Drake, who stumbled back. Seizing his chance, Shuyin spun around and struck him in the side with his lance handle. Drake was flung away from the blow, but managed to get back on his feet. Both were panting, out of breath.

Drake drew a deep breath, then lunged with his sword, which split again. Shuyin dodged, and the sword tip dug into the wall behind him. However, this was how Drake had planned. The sword reconnected and Drake dashed. His leap and the sword's pull amplified his speed, and in a split second he was right in front of Shuyin. He was about to swing his sword across and strike Shuyin with the flat of his blade by the head, when Shuyin twisted his upper torso and delivered an extremely fast punch to his chest (Think Gatotsu Zeroshiki). Drake went flying back and crashed right into Kain, who had just gotten back up. All three competitors were down. The bell announced that the match was over. Shuyin looked up into the crowd, then the sky, and he tumbled onto the ground.

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When Shuyin came to, he was in the hospital chamber. Drake and Rena were beside his bed.

"Hey, you're awake!" Rena exclaimed.

"...how long were you there?" Shuyin asked, getting up slowly.

"Not long, just got up ourselves." Drake told him. "The messenger told us to head over to the audience chamber as soon as you got up, so let's go".

The three warriors, all in a pretty bad state, walked towards the vast audience chamber. Kain was already there, looking quite furious. He glared at Shuyin when the three arrived. Before he could say anything, the king addressed the four finalists.

"Your performance in the final battle was astounding. No such prowess has been seen in this kingdom for ages!" he complimented them. Then his Minister spoke for him.

"You are probably wondering what the 'special' thing is. Well, it is this: You four are the most powerful warriors in our kingdom, therefore, it is fitting to bestow upon you a special title. Henceforth, you are to be known as the Four Beasts. Drake, the Lashing Viper. Rena, the Soaring Hawk. Kain, the Prowling Lupine. And Shuyin, the Rising Dragon."

The four blinked in confusion. The minister continued on.

"Now, Shuyin, the winner of the tournament, is to be made the leader of this special unit. The Four Beast will be a special attack squad, acting independently from the main army, hacing to answer to no one but the king himself. The reason for creating this unit is simple. We are to march against the countries in the continent of Graitt (I think thats what its called), and you will be essential in the process. Reports indicate that they too, have skilled warriors and leaders, so it was necessary to procure a special team that can eliminate such threats."

"But my lord, we are mere children, are you sure about this?" Drake inquired uncertainly.

"Age means nothing in the face of skill. Have you not bested countless fighters who are more in age, yet less in skill?" The minister pointed out. "The invasion shall begin next year, once the preparations are complete. Ready yourselves until then."

The four youths, still stunned, turned to leave.

"Oh, one more thing." The minister stopped them. "Shuyin Magna, as the leader of the Four Beasts, you are to be known to all, as Kirin Magnus, the legendary warrior of old."


	12. Reminiscence 2: God of Death

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Chapter 11: Reminiscence 2 - God of Death.

In the Airglyph encampment stationed near the town of Arias, soldiers were on full alert. It was a simple barricade made from piles of rocks, but it was efficient enough to guard against medium scale assaults. The war with Greeton had been going on for nearly 2 years now, and tension ran high in the air. Initially, the army of Greeton had held the advantage, flooding into the continent of Gaitt and cutting down all oppositions. Curiously enough, it appeared that most bases located near the borders were unable to mount any resistance. The devastation had forced Airyglyph, Aquaria, and Sanmite Republic to join forces. Positioned in the frontline, the 15th defense base of Airyglyph was most likely to be attacked soon.

"Sheesh, I can't stand this silence, gives me the creeps." An Airyglyph soldier on the north wall muttered.

"I know Anton, I'd rather have the ruckus of battle than this, at least then I know what's going on." Another muttered.

"Shut up you two, if you have energy to be complaining, spend it on standing watch."

A few minutes silence passed by.

"Hey Hugh, Gregory, remember in the beginning of the war, how nearly all of the border camps were taken so easily?" Anton inquired his two companions.

"Yeah, what about it?" Gregory asked.

"Well, there's been a rumor going on that those camps were totally empty by the time the Greeton scumbags got there."

"What? You mean those guys over there deserted the bases or something?" Hugh said skeptically.

"I don't know about that, but keep in mind that these attacks were quite sudden. Heck, we didn't find out that they invaded us until they already broke through the main defense line."

"So what are you suggesting? That the fellas at the border just disappeared right before the fighting began?" Hugh snapped.

"Hey, don't ask me, that's just what I heard." Anton shrugged.

"Oh yeah? Well I think that's completely ludicro-" The torchlights went out.

"What the? Who messed with the-"

Hugh was cut off as his body was split in two pieces diagonally.

"What the hell!" Gregory leapt back in surprise, but was hit by a silvery orb and flung over the wall. Anton frantically backed up. Someone was moving in the darkness ahead of him.

"Who, who's there?" He demanded shakily. The stranger moved into the moonlight, and before him stood a figure clad in black armor and holding an equally black spear. Anton briefly recalled the rumors about a Greeton warrior who was equipped like so.

"I-i-impossible, n-not the G-god of De-" There was a flash of metal and Anton's head parted with his body.

The rest of the guards heard the commotion and immediately gathered at the north wall. Those who were already on the wall charged at the intruder. Limbs and blood soon rained down from the wall. Alarmed by what just happened, the soldiers below the wall all stepped back, just as someone leapt down from it. The guards all charged at the lone figure.

Screams were heard from the camp for a few minutes, then came silence... and flames.

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"Hey sis, back from dinner?" Drake asked as the girl stepped inside the room.

"Yup. I suppose Shuny and Kain aren't back yet." Rena looked around.

The room served as headquarters of the Eradicators, Greeton's special task unit. It composed of about 50 specially trained elites called The Blood Shadows, and was led by none other than the Four Beasts themselves. The Beasts have been involved in many different operatoins since the war began, ranging from assassinations to leading full-frontal assaults.

"Nope, but I daresay Kain would be back soon." The moment he finished his statement, the Prowling Lupine came strolling inside. "Speak of the devil..."

"Hi Kain, how'd it go?" Rena said lively.

"Heh, piece of cake. Those so-called Black Brigade gave us no trouble at all." Kain smirked. He had been dispatched along with a battalion of soldiers on a mission to counter the incoming Airyglyph attack troops.

"I take it that Kirin isn't back yet?" Kain said in an unpleasant tone, looking around the room as Rena had done. The siblings shook their heads. He simply shrugged and left for his chambers. It was common knowledge that Kain absolutely _hated _Shuyin, not only for beating him in the tournament so long ago, but for all the attention he garnered.

"Sigh, I'm worried about him..." Drake said.

"Well, I know his attitude sucks some times, but he's more than capable of handling any tasks." Rena piped up.

"No, not him, I meant Shu." Drake waved his hand. Rena cocked her head to the side in puzzlement.

"Haven't you noticed? He's changed, he's no longer the kid we met 3 years ago. I didn't worry so much with you since we've been to several battles during our knight times, and Kain fought a lot as a mercenary as well. We are used to killing, well, Kain seems to enjoy it a bit too much... Anyways, in Shu's case, its... well, different." Drake sighed.

"Now that you mention, he seems totally indifferent as to who he kills, or how many. Remember that one time he completely killed off 500 soldiers in a city and didn't even blink an eye?"

"Yeah... He doesn't care who the target is, as long as he is ordered to kill them or if they are an obstacle."

"But I must say, I was surprised that he would go against such numbers without backup. He was all bloodied up by the time we got there."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you. Its like he doesn't hold any value to life, not even his own. Which explains why he would take on all those dangerous missions without a word." Drake muttered bitterly.

The door swung open yet again and this time Shuyin, or Kirin as most knew him now, entered. The Raiyu siblings greeted him cheerfully, to which he merely nodded, before heading off to his own chambers. Drake looked uneasily at his friend and leader. He had changed so much. His clothes, hands, and lance were covered in blood stains. The once brilliant sapphire eyes were now completely feral yellow, and a sharp glint reaking of death shined within them. Whatever air of cheeriness within him had left long ago. What stood before the Lashing Viper and the Soaring Hawk now was an avatar of death.

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Shuyin entered his chambers and proceeded to take a bath. He then began washing the bloodstains off of his clothes and equipment. The mission he had just been on was the destruction of the nearest Gaitt base that was quite heavily fortified and had about 300 soldiers. The Rising Dragon had eradicated the entire defense force and burned the base to ashes within less than half and hour. When the war had first begun, he had shown slight hesitation in killing. But the more life he took, the less he cared, until he arrived at a point where he would hack apart anything or anyone without remorse or pity.

'Life... such a fragile thing... So easy to crush...' a cold voice spoke within his mind. Suddenly the warriors eyes flashed a hint of blue and lost the cold glare, and looked tired and sad. But most of all, fearful.

'Go... away...' Shuyin thought agonizingly.

'Ah, are you sure? Do you want to return to that time? Completely helpless, watching all of them dying around you, about to die yourself? Do you?' The voice taunted.

'No... no... I don't want to...' The red-haired youth thought feebly.

'Yes. Together, we can be great, nothing can stop us... Then no one can harm you ever again."

Shuyin seemed to struggle with something. He brought his hands to his face and moaned as if in intense pain. Then, as abruptly as it began, he ceased. Lowering his hands, he faced the mirror before him. Murderous golden orbs had once again replaced the blue eyes... and darkness settled upon his heart yet again.

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"Our forces are going to commence an attack against the capital city of Airyglyph itself. The king has ordered our presence at the frontline." Drake reported to his fellow young Beasts.

"Awesome! The enemies heart, it must be packed with soldiers." Kain grinned in anticipation of the slaughter.

"Umm... Shu, I hate to say this but, I really think this is a bad idea." Drake said carefully.

"Why?"

"There must be at least 2,000 soldiers, the elites of Black and Dragon Brigade are in that place. The whole area around the city is crawling with them. Not to mention that it is the most heavily guarded fortress we have encountered so far. AND we only have about 300 troops with us!"

"Well, we can just wait for reinforcements can't we?" Rena asked.

"About that... There are none." Drake muttered.

"WHAT! What is his majesty thinking? 300 troops, not to mention FRESH recruits, against 2,000 elites!" Kain blurted out in disbelief.

"I believe that he had gotten rather arrogant. Most battles we had been in up to now were against either small amount of troops or poorly trained ones. He thinks we are so invincible that there shouldn't be any problem. So he left us with only a small amount of men and had most of the army focusing their attacks on Aquaria territory." Drake speculated.

"Thats just crazy! Not only are we horribly outnumbered and outskilled, but two of the Three Captains are in there too! Those guys ALONE are capable of whittling our current troops down in half!" Rena shouted out.

"We have our orders, we carry them out..." Shuyin said tonelessly.

"Oh you certainly can't be SERIOUS!" Drake blurted.

"If you don't want to come that's fine. I'll go alone if need be..."

"Hah! As if I'm gonna let you have all the fun!" Kain sneered.

The Beasts sat in silence for a moment, then rounded up the camp.

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Nearly 1,000 Black Brigade soldiers charged against the oncoming Greeton troops. Glou Nox was leading them up front, engaging the enemy himself. At first, it seemed that the battle would be over soon. But the Beasts tore through the enemy lines, giving the small Greeton force encouragement while stunning the opponents. Within minutes they had managed to pushed back the blockade and entered the city. However, Drake immediately sensed that something was wrong. The city was quiet... too quiet... and empty. Not to mention that the fight had been way too easy and he hadn't seen any of the dragon riders. Suddenly a thunderous cry shook the air. Turning back, he saw the sky filled with abour 3,000 soldiers on dragons. _Crap! The Dragon Brigade!_ He thought and turned to his comrades.

"It's a trap! We have to get the hell out of here!" The moment the words left his lips, Black Brigade soldiers, over 2,000 of them, came pelting out of every nook and cranny in the city and assaulted them.

"Dammit!" Drake swore as he began swinging his Serpent Blade wildly, cutting down soldiers without rest.

The outcome was crystal clear. The Airyglyph troops were massacring the feeble Greeton troops. Within no time, only a handful remained, desperately hacking a path out of the city. Three of the Beasts suddenly stood right before the blockade of dragon riders and raised their hands. The gems began to glow.

"Lightning Tempest!"

"Burning Nova!"

"Grand Spire!"

A hurricane crackling with electricity burned countless soldiers, while more were incinerated by a titanic fireball, and still more were pierced by rocks shaped like sharp cones shooting up from the ground. About 800 soldiers disappeared in a blink of an eye. The destruction threw the riders into momentary panic. The Greeton force seized that opportunity and managed to escape. Only about 20 soldiers and 18 Shadows remained.

"I'm gonna, huff, be having, huff, a looooooong chat with the king about this." Drake panted.

"That was no fun at all!" Rena whined.

"Damn those insects! Using such trickery!" Kain began cursing like mad.

"Hang on a bit..." Drake began looking around, for it felt like something was missing.

"...where's Shu?" His question was answered by small explosions and howls coming from the city they had just left.

"Oh hell, this can't be good."

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One after another, soldiers fell. Shuyin was slashing and stabbing continuously against an endless horde of troops. His yellow glare actually froze some of them motionlessly. He was surrounded by thousands of enemies in the fields outside of the city, which he had punched a hole through a wall to escape. Suddenly a man stood before him.

"I see that the rumors were right about you, Kirin Magnus..." The man spoke to him.

"... Glou Nox, captain of the Black Brigade..." Shuyin muttered.

"Correct." Glou reached for his sword and charged. At the same time, another being emerged from behind.

"I'll be the one to take your head, Black Lance!" Shuyin turned to see Duke Vox flying straigth towards him.

The two captains struck again and again. Shuyin fought back, but the exhaustion was catching up with him. Not only that, these two were among the best warriors of Airygylph, said to be on par with the Four Beasts. As time went by, Glou and Vox were able to score some hits against the young lanceman. The soldiers cheered as they saw the famed warrior falter. Vox was able to smash Shuyin in the torso with the handle of his lance, and the red head was flung back. He got back up, clearly at his limits now.

"You were an admirable fighter, Magnus. How about it? If you join us, we'll spare you life." Duke Vox offered smugly. Shuyin merely glared back at him.

"Very well then." Vox and Glou began closing in on Shuyin when suddenly a gust of wind flung them far away. Glou managed to grab onto Vox's dragon as the gale drove them far back.

"I... will not lose..." Black energy crackled around Shuyin's body. The soldiers began backing away. He then leapt up high into the air, and brought one hand above his head. The black energy gathered in his palm and turned into a black sphere.

"Necrosis Holocaust!" He flung the black ball down upon the troops.

The attack struck the ground, then it exploded in a huge dome of black flame, covering the fields where the soldiers were panicking. They howled as their _insides_ were burned up first, then their entire body began shriveling up. When the fires disappeared, every living being that had been caught in the blast, down to the last weed and rodent, were shriveled and scorched. The field itself had a huge crater blown out of it as well. The survivors shook and stared in horror at the catastrophe before them. Out of the original 4,000 or so troops that were attacking the Black Lance, only 200 remained.

"He, he, he... is tru-truly... the God of Death..." One of them stammered.

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In the meanwhile, Shuyin, who had been flung away by the shockwaves due to his weakened condition, crashed into the ground within the city. He struggled to get up, but his body wouldn't respond properly. Slowly he crawled forward, but soon he couldn't move at all. His vision began to blur, and his struggle to remain conscious was futile. Then his eyes closed and he fainted.

The door of a house nearby opened, and a young lady and a little girl who appeared to be her little sister came out. They approached the unconscious being cautiosly. The young woman knelt down before him while her sister hid behind her. She then told her little sister to bring her father, and the little girl scurried back in. She returned with a man who looked stark white at the moment.

"Amelia, what's the meaning of this? Get back inside immediately!" The man whispered urgently.

"But father, he's hurt, he needs help!" Amelia, the young woman, pleaded.

"Are you crazy! Do you realize who this is! Haven't you just seen that, that explosion and heard those screams!" Her father looked as if he was about to pass out.

"Father, look at him!"

"All I see is a cold-hearted murderer who would think nothing of killing everyone in this entire city!" The father had finally lost controll and bellowed out. Amelia looked at him coldly then called her sister.

"Ameena, come here, help me carry him to my room." The little girl nodded and helped her sister carry the feared killer. They were surprised at how light he was, not to mention that he was a bit smaller than they thought. After hearing all the horrific stories about him, they had expected a huge and scary looking barbarian.

They brought him up to Amelia's room and dropped him on the bed. Little Ameena hurried off to fetch the medicines and other tools. Amelia happened to be a quite skilled in medicines and treatments, but the extent of the injuires was so great, that it took her about 2 hours properly fixing Shuyin up. She let out a sigh of relief and looked at her patient. She removed the long red hairs that covered his face and gasped in surprise. Kirin Magnus of the Black Lance, the famed and feared killer, was just a _child_. He looked no older than 15. Little Ameena was peering curiously at him until Amelia shooed her away, tucked Shuyin in more comfortably, and left the room. She sighed, just what could have caused such a young boy to do what he did? She pondered in grief as she walked away.

_Continued in Chapter 12: Reminiscence 3 - The Value of Life._


	13. Reminiscence 3: The Value of Life

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

_(Again, thanks to all those who reviewed and lent me their opinions, they mean a lot!)_

Chapter 12: Reminiscence 3 - The Value of Life.

"Damn! How did this happen!" Drake pounded the table with his fists. Three of the Four Beasts were inside the command tent within their small camp.

"26 soldiers and 18 Shadows remaining. Among those, only 12 soldiers and 14 Shadows are capable of fighting." Rena reported.

"...and what of Shu?" Drake asked darkly.

"We... have no idea. Ever since that, that, terrible fire, at least I think it was a fire, everythings been rather quiet down there. That's all we know." Rena answered.

"Feh, probably got himself killed, the fool." Kain smirked with a hint of satisfaction, earning him a glare Rena.

"Even if he is still alive, there is no way for us to reach him in our current situation. Kain, go around as many bases as you can and try to get as much men as possible. Rena, you go directly to his majesty near Aquios and inform him of the current situation, and request immediate reinforcements." The two Beasts nodded and left the camp. Drake sighed and slumped down on his chair.

'Shu, you had better be alive. Don't you dare throw away your life fighting mindlessly over there...' He then got up and prepared to move further away from the city of Airyglyph.

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Amelia entered her room quietly. She carried a tray that bore some soup, medicine, and water. For about a week, the figure in the bed have been unconscious, and she had been slipping the soup and medicine herself into his open mouth. The door opened again and her sister, little Ameena, came tiptoeing in. The two stared at the still boy. It still surprised Amelia, and her entire family for that matter, that the rumored murderer was just a kid. They have kept his presence a secret, knowing that if word got out the Black Lance was in their house, the soldiers would come barging in. Her father was all for it, but her mother, sister, and herself quickly snuffed the notion out of his head.

Ameena left the room carrying the tray back. Amelia carefully rearranged the sheets on Shuyin's bed as Ameena returned with a small bucket of cold water and a towel. She wet the towel in the water and proceeded to place it on Shuyin's forehead. Suddenly, a hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, and the red head leapt up from the bed, his eyes gleaming dangerously. His other hand lashed out and grasped her neck, strangling her. Ameena screamed in alarm, which brought Shuyin back to his senses, and caused him to release his deathgrip on Amelia. He leapt away from the two girls. What happened just then was due to pure reflexes. He had been attacked in his sleep several times so when someone approached him in his sleep suddenly, his reaction tended to be deadly. Hurried footsteps were heard and a man and a woman came rushing into the room.

"Amelia!" The mother dashed towards her daughter, who was sitting on the floor clutching her throat, gasping for breath. The father pointed a finger furiously at the attacker, but had huge difficulty hiding the panick in his voice.

"How, how, how dare you do-do that to m-my d-daughter!" He stuttered wildly.

"...where am I?" Shuyin asked. The family noticed how faint and strained his voice was. Obviously, he has not yet fully recovered.

"The city of Airyglyph, this is our house." The mother answered quietly, her arms around her daughter. Shuyin began walking towards the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" The father demanded shakily.

"None of your business, get in my way, and I'll kill you..." He glared at the poor man, then turned to exit through the door, but suddenly slumped onto the floor. Blood was coughed out as the Rising Dragon shook violently.

Amelia detached herself from her mothers grip and ran over to the shivering warrior. He pushed her aside, but this made him cough and jerk even worse. Seeing the youth suffering so terribly, Amelia's father lost his rage and became concerned. He helped his daugther put Shuyin back on the bed, and watched as she applied medicines and hastily put the towel over his head. A few minutes later, Shuyin had calmed down, but was still shaking slightly.

"Just rest now, just rest." Amelia said softly. He frowned a bit.

'Why? Why is she helping me? We are on opposing sides, it would make more sense to kill me right now. So why bother trying to heal me?' Still confused, the young warrior drifted off into a deep slumber.

It took a few more days for Shuyin to recover enough to be walking around. Still, he was in no condition to be fighting just yet, Amelia had said that it'd probably take another month or two for his body to completely heal. During his treatment, the kindness he received from the sisters and Joseph, Amelia's fiance and a very kind-hearted young man, seemed to slowly change him. At first he would do nothing but either glare at them threateningly or simply ignore them, but as time went by he became a good deal less hostile. In fact, he has been spending most of his time keeping little Ameena company while Amelia and her father (Garen) were out working and her mother (Lien) was busy with housework. Living in such a bright and friendly environment, although it was rather awkward at first due to Garen's attitude against him, has brought considerable change in his behavior _and _appearance. His countenance had softened from his previous emotionless face. His eyes had also reverted back to their blue color, and the cold death glare was gone as well. He even smiled and laughed now. The siblings had become his good friends before he knew it.

One day Amelia decided to let Shuyin follow her around as she went grovery shopping. Of course, Shuyin wore a blue cape she had made with her sister, so that he could conceal himself. If Kirin Magnus was found strolling around the street, who knew what pandemonium might erupt. Fortunately, the weather being so cold, being covered in a cape drew little attention. As the two made their way to the store, Shuyin noticed that majority of the people out were women. Hardly any men, at middle aged ones, were to be seen, only the old or the young were present. Puzzled at this, he asked Amelia the reason for such lack of males. Her gaze saddened as she explained.

"Most men were drafted into the army because of the war. The only ones that remain are the elders and the children. But recently the children are being drafted as well." Shuyin was mentally struck as he remembered all those soldiers he had slaughtered so far.

"...what about Joseph and your father?" He asked quietly.

"Father has a heart problem, he wouldn't last a day doing something as strenuous as fighting. Thankfully, the king exempted him from military duties. And Joseph..." She trailed off for a moment. "Actually Shu, Joseph is a captain of the imperial guards..."

"What! Then why didn't he turn me in?" Shuyin blurted in surprise.

"Well, he considered it at first, but when he saw Ameena playing with you, he thought that you couldn't be all that bad. So, he turned a blind eye, for my sake as well." She smiled lightly.

This piece of news baffled Shuyin even further. It was one thing to receive compassion from a civilian, but from an enemy officer? Slowly these events began unlocking something within him. Experiencing all these kindness and such had somehow caused him to think about what he had been doing so far. Killing countless without mercy, causing others to suffer without a trace of pity or mercy... Had he made an error in judgement since he joined the army of Greeton. Come to think of it, why had he began such a despicable murder spree in the first place. He had forgotten the reason three years ago. When they returned home, Shuyin had lots going on in his mind.

The time came when Shuyin decided to leave. Although he had rather enjoyed his time here, and also felt somewhat refreshed, he was still duty-bound to serve the Kingdom of Greeton. He had half expected Joseph to try and arrest him, but the Guard Captain merely said "Hope I don't end up having to fight you." jokingly. After spending one last night with his new friends, he left quietly once everyone asleep. He had overheard Joseph speaking of Greeton reinforcments heading towards Airyglyph, and knew exactly where they would gather.

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The next day, Drake watched as countless men and machines march towards him. Two figures sped ahead of the others and appeared before him

"About 900 gathered from nearby bases and camps." Kain reported.

"His majesty had granted us 2,000 soldiers as well!" Rena piped up cheerfully as usual.

"Good, we'll be needing the soldiers. I've been keeping an eye out on the enemy, and it appears that approximately three to four thousand troops had arrived there." Drake informed the two. "Now remember, this is strictly a rescue mission. We march in there, find Shuyin, and haul him out. His majesties other commands come afterwards."

"What makes you think he's still alive?" Kain smirked.

"Because, do you honestly think the enemy would keep quiet if they had killed off our most powerful warrior?" Drake emphasized the _most powerful_ part, which caused Kain to mutter darkly under his breath.

"Anyways, this is the plan, we-" He was interrupted by someone entering the tent.

"No need for that Drake, I'm here." Shuyin greeted his comrade as he came in. "I see that you retreated here just like I told you to."

Everyone stared at him, completely stunned. Then Rena leapt up and ran right into him (just as she had done so many times before the war began). Once the war had changed him, he usually dodged or stopped her with a menacing glare, but this time he just let her catch in a vice-grip. Drake snapped out of his daze and returned the greeting. The only person who didn't look pleased to see him was Kain, who greeted him with a scowl.

"Kyah! Shuny! You're okay, thank goodness!" Rena squealed as she held onto him tightly, causing Shuyin to turn red. Drake stepped forward quickly to save him from his sister's grasp.

"Whoa, calm down sis. Hey there Shu? You feeling alright?"

"Well enough" The siblings noted with surprise as they examined him more carefully. The cold, harsh fighter that they had gotten used to over the last 2 years was gone. Instead, there stood a young man that greatly resembled a child they had met before the war began. No, even more than that, Drake thought, for that cold gleam within his eyes had weakened as well.

'Just what the heck happened to him back here?' He wondered, then immediately got to business.

"Well, it certainly is good to see you alive and well Shu. Since you are here already, I guess we can get on with the next goal." Shuyin gave him a questioning look.

"His majesty has ordered the assassination of the king of Airyglyph. Once he is out of the way, the Airyglyph army will crumble. Now, this isn't going to be easy, but if we try hard enough, it is plenty possible." The Viper explained. Shuyin's eyes clouded a bit upon hearing this.

'Great... I had hoped to avoid fighting in there if I could help it..." he thought.

"So, any ideas Shu?" Rena inquired.

"...we can have the soldiers lead a direct assault against the enemy. Using that as a distraction, two of us will infiltrate the castle with the remaining Shadows and attempt to assassinate the king." Shuyin proposed.

"Hmm... That sounds pretty good. So, who's going to attack and who's going to infiltrate?" (Drake)

"I suggest that you and Rena lead the attack, while I go in with Kain." Shuyin knew that he and Kain never got along very well, but considering Kain's ferocity and efficiency at assassinations (almost TOO efficient), he was the best choice. As for going there himself, he wanted to make sure nothing bad happened to the city and those he had befriended back there.

"Aww... I wanted to go with Shuny..." Rena pouted.

"Ok, so when should we do this?" Kain wondered.

"Tonight."

Everyone once again stared at him in amazement. Drake scratched his head.

"Tonight? You sure? You just got back." Shuyin nodded.

'The faster I get this over with, the better it will be.'

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Night had settled in before long. The vast majority of the soldiers of Airyglyph were still busy removing the horrid pile of corpses and fixing up the deep crater in the field. They were so occupied with the task, even though they wished they were anywhere else than with these horrible burnt, shriveled bodies, that they didn't notice about 20 people moving around on the mountain nearby. Shuyin and Kain's small group of assassins swiftly scaled the mountain and dropped down onto a section of the castle wall. Though there were guards nearby and Kain was eager to wet his claws in fresh blood, Shuyin had firmly ordered that they kill no one unless absolutely necessary. He had said that excessive killing would alert the sentries to their presence, but in truth, deep within him he wanted to avoid murdering any more people than they needed to. Kain kept an eye on him, and had a fairly good idea what was going on.

The security within the castle was extremely tight. Guards were posted in every corridor and members of the imperial guards made constant patrol checks. Positioning themselves right outside the windows of one of the rooms, the assassins waited for the signal. Soon , they heard loud battle cries from outside the city, and saw many of the soldiers within the castle hurrying towards the city gate to help in the battle. The battle raged for a while and then they saw what they were waiting for. Drake had unleashed a blast of lighthing up into the sky. The moment they saw this, the group burst into the room throught the windows and quickly eliminated the guards before they could shout out. Even so, someone was bound to have heard the shattering of glass. Wasting no time, they hurried out into the hallways and made their way to the audience hall, killing any guards who tried to stop them. It didn't take long for them to finally appear before the king, surrounded only by a few soldiers.

"Hehe, this is too easy, what incompetence." Kain chuckled as he took a step forward.

Suddenly almost every door within the castle burst open and the imperial guards came pouring into the hall, completely surrounding the infiltrators. A young man in blue gleaming silver armor and wielding a lance stepped forward.

"I could say the same to you." Joseph retorted, then his eyes settled on Shuyin.

"So... I guess my hope was useless eh?" He said casually, referring to the words he said before they last parted. Shuyin didn't look him in the eye.

"Enough chit-chat! I'll just kill you all in the process!" Kain cried and charged.

Immediately soldiers attempted to stop him, but the Lupine's rabid attacks eliminated them one after another with ease. In the meanwhile, Shuyin and the Shadows were fending off the enemies from behind. Shuyin chanced a glance back over his shoulders. Kain had engaged Joseph in a duel, and although the young captain was managing to fight back, it was clear he wouldn't last long against the fury of Kain's claws.

"Not bad, but how about THIS!" Kain leapt back.

When he charged forward this time, about 6 of him seemed to appear. Taken by surprise, Joseph dropped to his knees as huge gashes appeared across his face, his chest (the armor had been pierced through), and on other parts of his body. Kain stood before his shuddering form.

"Hmph, a rat like you dared to challenge me? Regret it in the afterlife, fool!" Kain drew back one claw, planning to skewer the young knight.

Before he knew what happened, Kain was hurled backwards as something struck him in the face. Grunting, he got up to see who had hit him. There, next to the bloody knight, stood Shuyin, who had apparently stopped Kain from stabbing the heart out of the fallen captain. He seemed shock at what he had just done.

"What, what do you think you're doing Kirin!" Kain snarled, getting back on his feet and glaring at the stunned lanceman.

Everyone present seemed just as confused as he was, and had stopped fighting as of the moment. Shuyin did not answer, but just continued to look shaken.

"Ah... I see, I thought it was something like this. It's the only explanation as to how you survived here for so long. They must've spared you in exchange for your surrender..." Kain speculated smugly.

"No, Kain, it's not-" Kain ignored him and continued.

"So the reason you brought us here was all a trap, wasn't it? I wouldn't be surprised to see Drake and Rena being ambushed out there right now as well..." There was a malicious glint in his eyes.

"Kain, just listen to-" Again, he was cut off.

"No use denying it Kirin! I've spent the whole day investigating what had happened here during your stay. I know all about that family and about that fool over there!" He jerked his head towards Joseph."

"You're getting it all wro-"

"The penalty of betrayal... is DEATH! Prepare yourself, traitor!" Kain bellowed and struck the floor with his claws.

The floor shattered and the two dropped down to the first floor of the castle. Kain began slashing madly, forcing Shuyin into the defensive. The duel lasted for a few minutes until a loud noise came from the outside. One of the Shadows said it was more Airyglyph soldiers, coming to reinforce the battle inside the castle. Even though he would love to shed more blood, Kain was not stupid enough to think he could handle an entire battalion of soldiers, a captain of the Black Brigade, and the accursed _traitor_ by himself. Growling in displeasure, he and the surviving Shadows rushed out of the castle.

"You'll regret this traitor!" Kain shouted back as he retreated.

For a moment everyone just stood there, still not entirely sure as to what had just happened. Then Shuyin remembered his friend and raced to his side. A medic was already checking up on him when he arrived. The physician shook his head and stepped away. Joseph's breathing was labored, but when he saw Shuyin next to him, he grinned.

"Haa, haa... Eh... hehe... S-see? I knew you w-weren't a-all that b-bad..." He managed to mutter.

"Joseph..." Shuyin could feel the life ebbing away from the knight.

"S-say sorry t-to Amelia for me... Friend..." Then his eyes closed and he said no more.

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Shuyin trudged miserably towards Amelia's house. This feeling... he didn't know how to deal with it. He had murdered so many, seen many deaths, yet he hadn't felt even the slightest bit of remorse, pity, or anything. Until now... Now, he was filled with misery, but having been foreign to it for so long, he was having a hard time handling himself. He was so confused that he didn't realize a group of people and sounds of wailing ahead of him. Wondering what could've happened, he quickened his pace. Then he realized with a jolt where the crowd was gathered, in front of Amelia's house. Immdiately he sped through the small crowd and found Lien and Ameena huddled together, crying. Garen was pounding his fists on the ground, howling and sobbing. Amelia was nowhere to be seen. A feeling of cold dread gathering within him, Shuyin asked them what had happened.

"It was terrible, a young man just came running by and then suddenly grabbed their daughter and ran off." A woman among the crowd told him. Shuyin froze.

"D-did he have anything peculiar on his hands?" Shuyin asked praying that it wasn't the case.

"Now that you mention it, he had something with him... Looked like claw or something." Shuyin's heart nearly skipped a beat. Then he remembered what Kain had said earlier, _I've spent the whole day investigating what had happened here during your stay. I know all about that family and about that fool over there!_

"Oh, by the way, he also said something to poor Garen as he left." The woman added.

Shuyin thanked her shakily and walked over to Garen. The devastated father saw him coming and slowly got up.

"What happened? What did he tell you?" Shuyin asked carefully.

"He said... _If you want her back alive, come to the summit of the mountain._" Garen's voice was barely more than a whisper.

Shuyin led the three back into their houses. Little Ameena was sobbing and clutching onto his arm. She asked him if she would see her sister soon. Shuyin lowered himself so he was level with her, then assured her softly.

"You will see your sister again soon, I promise."

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It was dawn and the sky was slightly lit by the time Shuyin had managed to get close to the summit. The moment he reached a clearing, however, 10 figures leapt out from behind boulders and trees, surrounding him. Upon closer look, they turned out to be the last remaining members of the Blood Shadows, whom he had trained himself. Without a single word, they all charged at him, striking with their daggers. The Shadows were essentially assassins and infiltrators, like ninjas. This meant that, coupled with the training they had received, they were extremely swift and effecient. Of course, they were still no match for the members of the Four Beasts, especially not the supposed 'Strongest'. Even then, being tired as he was from the lack of rest and the previous battle (His opponents had rested on the mountain as he was searching for them), they did quite a bit of damage to him before they were annihilated. Panting and soaked with blood, both his and his now enemies, Shuyin quickly pressed on to the summit.

There stood Kain, the Prowling Lupine, the most dangerous and ferocious of the Beasts, the most blood-thirsty, and the one who hated Shuyin the most. Amelia lay unconcsious behind him, and he smirked in pleasure as he saw Shuyin approaching him, obviously suffering from his wounds and fatigue.

"Let her go Kain! She has nothing to do with this!" Shuyin demanded. Kain stood silent for a few seconds.

"All the time... all the time... No matter how hard I tried, you always outdid me, you always caught everyone's attention!" He spat bitterly.

"But no more... Oh yes, no more... I had one Shadow report your betrayal. Now you are nothing more than an enemy to his majesty... And if I destroy you right now, I'LL be the strongest! Oh how I've waited for this day..." Kain seemed quite maniacal with either glee or madness.

"I told you! I haven't betrayed his majesty, I haven't betrayed Drake, Rena, or you!" Shuyin yelled.

"Silence! No excuses will save you!" and he prepared to fight.

"Normally, I won't be able to beat you. It was infuriating, but that is the truth. You're simply more talented than I am. But now, I've seen the way you fight back in the castle... You've gone _soft_. And that has bred weakness in you. As you are, there is no way that I can lose!" He sprang forward.

Had it been in the past, such as the tournament held 3 years ago, Shuyin would've emerged as a victor in this duel. However, the Shuyin in the past was a cold-hearted murderer who had no problem unleashing death and destruction upon all. The current Shuyin was no longer that murderous beast and was restraining his powers because he wasn't sure what might happen if he let himself fall into his old self again. On top of that, he was in a very bad condition, whereas Kain was rested and fresh, and had no problem what-so-ever shredding the Rising Dragon to bits. Not surprisingly, Kain held the upper hand.

But the dreaded Kirin Magnus was still a marvelous warrior, and one thought also gave him unexplainable strength: Save Amelia! Soon, much to Kain's bewilderment, the two were fighting on equal grounds. Frustrated, the Lupine pressed even harder, unleashing one wave of destruction after another.

"Howling Shredder!" the claws seemed to multiply before Shuyin's eyes, as each one began striking him from all directions. Unfortunately for Kain, he was so focuses on attacking, he didn't notice the glow in Shuyin's palm.

"Polaris Blast!" A ball of condensed energy blew Kain backwards several feet. However, the small amount of time and focus he had required for the spell cost Shuyin as well. Deep cuts were scattered across his body, and his blood was seeping into the snow on the ground.

Kain, with his entire will bent on his _revenge_, charged again the moment he got back up. Shuyin knew that the chance of him winning was slim, but he wasn't about to die without trying. A pair of claws came steaking forward against a single black lance. The lance wasn't quick enough, assuring the death of the wielder... if not for the unexpected intrusion. Blood splashed onto his face, as he stared in shock and horror at the claws, soaked in crimson, protruding from the body of a young woman, his friend. Amelia tumbled onto the ground, blood spilling from her wound.

"Hmph, foolish woman, stepping into our battle." Kain muttered nonchalantly.

Shuyin let out a terrific howl and faced Kain. Kain was startled at the look on his face. Those tear-streaked eyes, held some kind of burning flames within. The flames of rage. He dashed right in front of the startled Lupine so quickly, that Kain wasn't able to do anything in response.

"What, what the hell?" was all Kain ever said as an enrage Shuyin held up both hands in front of him.

"Solaris Burst!" A huge pillar of golden energy shot out, enveloping his foe. There was a brief shriek, then the light dissipated. No trace of Kain remained. Shuyin swiftly staggered to Amelia, who was becoming pale white and ice cold.

"Amelia, hang in there." He choked.

"Shu... I knew you would come... You shouldn't have... troubled yourself like so..." Her voice was faint. Shuyin tried to cast a healing spell, but he lacked the energy to do so. Even if he could use it, he knew it would be useless. But something within him refused to believe that.

"He's... gone isn't he? That man... said so..." Shuyin was puzzled as to what that meant. Then it hit him, Joseph's death, Kain must've said something.

"Amelia, you have to live on, for his sake..." Tears flowed as he felt her life force grow faint. She touched his cheek with a trembling hand.

"I'm glad... that I met you... Shu... please... find a happy... life... You... deserve... it." Her hand fell to her side, and her breath ceased.

He remained still there for a while. Tears fell freely as he held her still form. The person who had led him into the light, the one who had given him happiness after years in the dark, was no more. Shaking horribly, he thought back to everything that's happened so far. _This is my fault... If I had realized it sooner... If only I hadn't become what I am... If only I knew earlier..._ He then threw his head back and cried out.

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Garen supported his sobbing wife as the funeral took place. Joseph and Amelia were buried in one grave, so that they will be as least united in death. They were loved by many people due to their kind hearts and cheerful personality. Many came to mourn their deaths. Shuyin was also present. The more he watched, the more his heart ached. Amelia's parents went hysteric when he had returned with her lifeless body. Once they had calmed down, they started planning for the funeral. They had assured the apologetic young man that it wasn't his fault that this happened when he constantly said that it was so. Indeed, they had said that they were thankful that he had retrieved her body from the cold mountain. As his emotions threatened to overtake him again, he felt a little hand grab his own. Looking down, he saw little Ameena, who's eyes were red and watery from all the crying.

"...I'm sorry, I wasn't able to keep my promise..." Shuyin said. Ameena shook her head.

"No, I did see her again, right? So you didn't break your promise." Shuyin was taken aback by her reply.

"Don't blame yourself Shu... My sister wouldn't like it if you do... She wanted you to live happily, remember?" Shuyin gave a small smile and nodded.

At that moment, memories, those before he had arrived in Greeton, came flashing past before his eyes. It was then that he realized what he had forgotten. How a man and a woman cared for him lovingly. How that those same people gave their lives trying to save him. How another man and numerous kids had accepted him and treated him as family... He had forgotten about love. He had forgotten about compassion. But no more.

'I vow to use all my strength in ending this war. I will repent for the suffering I have caused in Graitt. Then I will leave... I will wander around and help whoever I can in atonement...'

As he vowed this, Shuyin had rediscovered the value of life.

_Continued in Chapter 13: The Darkness Within._


	14. The Darkness Within

_Oh my gosh, it's been like, forever since I updated. Sorry, school was madness. Oh, and Gester. about that thing about "Shrouded in mystery", no one really knows who Shuyin is, or of his actual life before the current group got to know him. You'll probably understand as this goes on... I hope. Anyways, thanks again to those who actually bothered to read this!_

_(P.S. I tried to come up with some Japanese terms, so if they are incorrect or something, please feel free to correct me!)_

**Disclaimer: I own pretty much nothing.**

Chapter 13: The Darkness Within

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_(Back in the present.)_

"So what happened to you afterwards?" Fayt asked.

"I joined up with the Graitts and helped drive the Greetons out, it took another 2 years of war for that."

"Sure gave us a hell, that's for sure." Drake said jokingly.

"Oh yeah, how do you and Crosell know each other?" Cliff joined in.

"Oh! I think I know that one! During one of our duels in the Barr mountain, a misfire from one of Greeton's explosive weapons sent him flying towards that cave, I think." Rena put one hand on her chin, thinking hard.

"Well, more accurately, I fell _into_ the top of the volcano, and landed on top of his head." Everyone pictured a human landing on top of a dragon's head. It was quite funny to think about apparently, as some of them started snickering.

It turned out that after the war, Shuyin returned to where his shuttle had landed 5 years prior to the end of the war. It took quite some effort fixing it up, due to the damage it took by the crash landing in the past and the lack of maintenance for 5 years. Once he had it fixed, he left Elicoor II and wandered throughout the universe for the last 10 years. Occasionally, he ran into other wars, such as between the Federation, the Aldians, and the Vendeeni, and ended up joining in it. However, he only joined the side that was being oppressed, namely the civilians. That was how he had met Maria 3 years afterwards. There was still much that was left unanswered, such as Shuyin's life prior to the one he told them, but it seemed that he didn't want to talk about it, so that subject was immediately dropped. Even if he did want to tell them, there wasn't any time, for at that moment a runologist came in and announced that preparations were complete. Exchanging determined looks, the party headed out.

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_(After the battle... Too lazy to come up with something)_

"Well, that's that, guess we better start heading back." Cliff shrugged.

The battle had been extremely hectic, since only the Thunder Arrow atop Crosell managed to do any damage. The Diplo's gravitic warp engine was damaged during the scuffle, and it required about 4 hours to be fixed. But the most disturbing of all were several mysterious beams that destroyed the Vendeeni ships. Beams that possessed a magnitude far surpassing even the Federation's best creation energy weapons. As Crosell headed back towards Aquios, the group discussed all thats happened, trying to see if they can get any idea what that thing had been.

"I sure hope that whatever it was, we don't have to go against it." Fayt shuddered at the idea of fighting against something with enough power to blast through a Vendeeni ship's shield with such ease.

"I'm with you kid, bad enough we got our own problems, but add this on top of that, man..." Cliff let out a sigh. On the other side of the little platform-ish thing on Crosell's back that they were in, Maria whispered to Shuyin.

"Did you see anything like that in your travels, Shuyin?" He shook his head.

"No, I don't think I've seen anything with that high of a magnitude... Unless you count..." Maria looked at him curiously.

"Nevermind." He said dismissively. "All I know is, whoever that is using the weapon that fired the beams are well advanced ahead of anyone."

"Yeah... This looks pretty bad."

"One thing bothers me though, just where were those beams aimed for in the first place? It seems unlikely that it was aimed for the Vendeeni from such a faraway place..."

"What the heck is that!" Everyone turned to Fayt, who was pointing at something coming from the land before them.

Two streaks of red flame came flying at Crosell, who barely managed to dodge it. Unfortunately, he wasn't so lucky when a crackling blue energy came pelting towards him. The lord of air dragons staggered in the air, then suddenly went limp and fell straight down, his passengers hanging on to any handhold for their dear lives. He crash-landed hard in the middle of the field that was still covered in craters and scorched earth from the Vendeeni assault. Everyone except Nel and Roger (Who had been flung all over the place within the Thunder Arrow) were tossed to the ground upon crashing. The Shuyin and Drake immediately jumped up, looking around wildly, followed by the rest (The two inside the weapon had crawled out).

"Yeowch! What was that just now?" Rena grumbled as she got up, massaging her aching back.

"That blue blast just now, it must've been a paralysis shock..." Shuyin looked back at Crosell's still form.

"But to do that to such a creature? Who could've?" Drake asked in a slightly nervous tone.

"We're about to find out."

Three figures leapt down from a small hill in front of them. One was a middle-aged man with shoulder-length blue hair and silvery eyes, dressed in long white pants, white shirt, and a white robe with scarlet markings on it on top (Likes white don't he?), and holding a long silver staff with a black orb attached on top, he looked like a summoner in fantasy games. The one on the left was a young woman with long black hair tied into a ponytail and dark blue eyes. She wore blue shorts and a blue clothing with criss-crossing white lines over her black shirt. There was also a pink sash tied over her waist. She looked very much like a ninja of sorts in those clothes. In her hand was a large and deadly looking scythe with a chain that ended with a bladed ring attached to the other end. The final one was a young man with short green hair and equally green eyes with a white bandana. He wore a green shirt and black pants. There was a black vest with short yellow lines across it over his shirt, along with a white sash. He also had silver armguards attached to his wrists that covered the length of his arm, and had an opening near the hand. Two long silver, slanted objects facing behind him were attached to his legs as well. The older man had an amused, but rather sinister, look on his face, whereas the girl seemed cheerful just like Rena while the younger man's face was filled with malice. Shuyin's eyes widened once he recognized them.

"O-overseers..." He said quietly.

"Overseers? Who the hell are they?" Cliff asked as everyone gathered next to Shuyin and Drake.

The three Overseers stopped once they got close enough to talk.

"At last we meet again... Zero." The older man said, grinning.

"Selemoss. Shienka. ...Braz." Shuyin regarded the younger man little differently than the rest, who simply glared at him as if he wished him nothing but ill-fortune.

"Hehehe, you won't get away this time Shu." The woman, Shienka, giggled. Although the effect was rather far from cheerful with that huge scythe in her hands.

"Wait..." Braz stepped forward, a frigid frost in his voice. "Let me deal with him myself."

Selemoss looked at him for a moment, then grinned as he gave his permission, much to Shienka's displeasure.

"Awwwww! No fair, I wanted to fight him!"

"Psst, Shu, just how many people do you have that wants to fight you? I mean, she is practically a clone of my sis in personality!" Drake whispered. Like always, the Viper somehow managed to take things lightly.

"Don't underestimate them, they each have a power that can easily rival the three of us, perhaps even more. We'll split into three groups, with each group taking on one of them." Everyone gathered into three separate groups upon Shuyin's advice.

Drake, Nel, and Roger went to the left, where Selemoss stood across the field. Rena, Albel, and Cliff went the other way where Shienka was. That left Shuyin to deal with Braz with Fayt and Maria. The two blue-haired youths realized with a start that this Braz was different from the other two. Selemoss was, well, to put it bluntly, creepy. Yet he had a casual and easy-going air about him, sort of like Drake and Cliff. As for Shienka, she was basically the same as Rena, no questions there. But Braz... He was burning... burning with _hate_. The fury in his eyes and the death aura pulsating from him was so immense, that the two youths almost backed up from the sheer tension. Not only that, Shuyin looked way different too when he faced Braz. Normally, he became extremely cold and calculating during battles, but this time his face registered a hint of remorse and slight frustration. Puzzled by this strange reaction between the two, Maria was about to ask him, but then thought better of it. Best leave it till after the battle.

"Ah, taking us individually I see... Tsk tsk, you'll have to do better than that Zero." Selemoss smirked as each of them prepared to fight their respective group. He held his staff in front of him, which was glowing with a faint bluish aura. Shienka began swinging her scythe very quickly, causing the disk-blade attached to the chain slice the ground around her. Braz crossed his arms in front of him, and from the small opening in his armguards, sharp blades slid out. At the same time, the things attached to his legs swung to the side of his legs, and blades shot out from the openings in them as well.

"...GO!" On Shuyin's signal, everyone charged at the Three Overseers.

Braz snarled and leapt towards Shuyin, easily deflecting the shots from Maria's guns. Fayt swiftly delivered a sidekick once they were close, but Braz parried his kick with his armguard, then gave Fayt a dose of his own kick. Fayt barely managed to bring up his sword in time, although he was still flung back a few feet. Had that blow fully connected, Fayt would've been in two pieces by now. Shuyin growled and lunged his lance at him. He remembered that Braz was extremely skilled in close-combat and bare-handed fighting. Those blade-guards he had were just an addition to make his attacks even more lethal. However, that was the least of Shuyin's problems.

"Dragon Maw!" Braz swung both his arms and legs from the side towards Shuyin, making it look like his extension blades are four fangs about to chomp on a prey.

Fayt and Maria were stunned by this display. The attack was same as Shuyin's, albeit slightly variated. Furthermore, their fighting styles were quite similar, and each of them seemed to read the other's moves perfectly. Shaking off the surprise, the two joined the fray immediately. Braz saw them chargin at him from one corner of his eyes, smirked, then leapt away from Shuyin. Turning round, he stretched out one arm, which was being engulfed in crackling blue and yellow energy.

"Rai-Ryu ha! (Thunder Dragon blast)" A torrent of electricity in the shape of a dragon -the long oriental type, not the medieval-western styles- flew straight at the two younger fighters. They were struck dead-on by the attack, which not only hurt them bad, but also numbed their bodies considerably. Shuyin's gritted his teeth upon recognizing the technique.

"You... you learned the Ku Ryu Ha (Nine Dragon Blast) technique?" He asked in slight disbelief.

"... I've trained considerably as of late... and also gained power... beyond your wildest dreams..." Braz now had a rather maniacal glint in his eyes. "Now... Come at me Shuyin! Is that the best the _successor _of the Dragon Clan can do!"

Shuyin had no time to reply as Braz charged with even more intense frenzy. Meanwhile, the other groups were not doing any better. Drake's crew were barely able to move, with the Viper himself kneeling down on one knee and using his sword for support. Selemoss hovered lazily above them, leering down with a smug expression. Rena's team was still moving, but all of them were cut up pretty badly. Shienka was still swinging that ridiculously big scythe of hers at inhuman speed, carving out anything that it and the ring-blade that was attached touched. Selemoss turned to see where Shuyin was locked in a deathmatch with Braz. He smirked at this sight.

'How ironic... That fool Braz really has an interesting way of thinking. Then again, perhaps its just the trauma.' He was driven out from his thoughts as Nel threw a dagger up at him. Snarling at the impudence, Selemoss returned his attention to tormenting these weaklings a bit more.

All the while, Shuyin and Braz continued clashing against one another, their attacks becoming more alike with each passing moment.

"Joushou-Ryusen! (Rising Dragon attack)" Shuyin plunged his lance into the ground then sliced upwards, unleashing a white shockwave that shot out from the earth.

"Kajou-Ryusen! (Spiral Dragon attack)" Braz spread his arms wide and spun around quickly, releasing a small purple tornado straight at the incoming shockwave.

The resulting explosion from the two attacks colliding blew back both of the warriors. Both panting heavily, they tried to regain their composure. After glaring daggers at Shuyin, Braz lifted his right arm, the yellow energy gathering once again at his palm. Shuyin countered by gathering red-and-orange energy onto his right hand. They both let loose their attacks at the same time.

"Rai-Ryu ha!"

"Honoo-Ryu ha! (Flame Dragon blast)"

Yellow energy surrounded by a crackling blue met red energy engulfed in orange flames. The two struggled to push the other's beam back, but for a while it appeared to be a stalemate. Then the tide seemed to turn in Shuyin's favor, as Braz was beginning to lose control. At that moment, Shuyin felt some disturbance in the air around him, then noticed something surround Braz. A fierce cry, and the size of Braz's Rai-Ryu ha multiplied five folds. Shuyin was struck by the full force of both his and Braz's blast. Once the dust cleared, there lay Shuyin, in the middle of a small crater, twitching as blue electricity crackled around his body. Gasping in pain, he struggled to get up, then what he saw nearly made his heart stop.

Braz was shrouded by a dark aura. An aura so black that it could've passed for his shadow, except for the fact that it shimmered about him. His eyes had gone completely black, no pupils visible. Red streaks were glowing throughout his arms and his cheeks. Shuyin was schocked at the sight. Then he instantly turned to the other two Overseers. Sure enough, they too have begun showing the same black, ominous conditions. The Black Lance turned to Selemoss and asked in a slightly shaken tone.

"You, what did you? You didn't? YOU RAN THE EXPERIMENT ON YOURSELVES!" Selemoss merely chuckled.

"Hehe, it wasn't that big of a deal, and in return, we got this great, unlimited power... Quite a bargain don't you think?"

"At the cost of your _soul_? What kind of fiend are you!"

"Whoops, nevermind that you should pay attention" Selemoss pointed behind the stunned warrior. Braz had begun his new wave of attack.

The merciless barage of blows, enhanced by the strange dark energy from which Braz drew his power from, began shredding the hapless lanceman to pieces. Staggering from all the cuts and bruises, one final Rai-Ryu ha was enough to fling him over 100 feet and crash right into a mountain, which collapsed on top of him. Braz didn't stop there. He immediately followed up more special attacks.

"Kaze-Danmaku! (Wind Barrage)" Everytime he swung his blades on his arms and legs, white crescent energy sliced through the air towards the huge heap of rubble that had once been a mountain, blowing apart what had survived the intial damage. Laughing like a mad man, Braz stepped up the pace of his attack, until two energy bolts struck him in the back of his head. Turning around, his glare met Maria, whose blasters were still smoking from the recent discharge. Snarling like a hungry beast, he was about to pounce on her when the ground began shaking.

"What the? No, it can't be..." Selemoss looked, for the first time, apprehensive, as he turned to the torn-up remains of the mountain.

The tremor intensified for a brief moment, then the entire wreckage was blown apart from _within_. A pillar of pure darkness shot towards the heavens, and something slowly emerged from the bottom of the pile of rocks. The dark beam cleared, and in its center stood, no, _flew_ Shuyin. Maria gasped as she glimpsed his features. They were completely different. This Shuyin was far different from the one she knew, even the cold-hearted one with the feral yellow eyes. This Shuyin had eyes of pure red where the white should've been, the pupil was an electirc blue, and a dark aura far more intense than that of the Overseers surrounded him. Maria didn't know why, but simply being in the presence of this new Shuyin brought a sense of foreboding, as if something terrible was about to happen.

"DAMN IT! THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!" Selemoss cursed loudly as the dark energy that perpetuated the air around Shuyin became even stronger. Braz scowled in defiance and drew up the electrical power into his palm once again.

"No Braz! Withdraw, NOW!" Ignoring Selemoss's comand, Braz unleashed his blow.

"Rai-Ryu ha!"

As the crackling draconic energy spiraled towards it target, Shuyin raised one hand. The dark energy swirling around him began to gather at his palm. With a sneer that was totally uncharacteristic of the Shuyin everyone knew, he let loose the power of darkness.

"Kage-Ryu ha! (Shadow Dragon blast)"

An immense black energy in the form of a sinister looking dragon with red eyes burst forth from his outstretched hand. It simply engulfed the blast of thunder and sped towards the shocked Braz. Selemoss immediately intervened, flying in front of the green haired warrior and casting a shimmering silver shield around them. The blast dissipated eventually, but the shield had cracked and Selemoss was panting from his effort, sweat drops falling down from his face.

"This is not a foe we can handle, didn't I warn you?" Braz averted Selemoss's gaze and gritted his teeth.

"Shienka, we're leaving, NOW!" Shieka didn't bother to argue and immediately contacted their hidden space shuttle, which quickly began teleporting them out. As the blue-white energy encircled the two of them, Braz grinned bitterly and murmurred.

"Well, at least I leave with the intriguing thought on how his face will look like when he wakes up..."

"Indeed, now that he has lost control, it won't be long before this entire planet, no the entire system would be decimated... starting with these 'friends' of his..." Selemoss and Braz gave an evil laugh as they began disappearing.

"Prepare yourselves for Hell now you fools, for the Dark Shuyin has awakened once again!" were Selemoss's parting words.

_Continued on Chapter 14: The Other Presence._


	15. The Other Presence

_Wow, I haven't updated in like, forever! Sorry to those who still read this junk, but with the moving and new school and all that, things had been rather hectic (That and my incurable laziness). But this time, I REALLY swear to update more often if there are enough reviews and hits. Thank you for your continued support._

**Disclaimer: I own nothing... getting tired of repeating this...**

Chapter 14: The Other Presence.

Drake tried to stand, but his body shook badly. He hated to admit it, but that blasted Selemoss had been beyond his capability to handle. Rena somehow managed to muster enough energy to drag herself next to her brother. The two exchanged a quick glance, then turned to where Shuyin was standing. The very air seemed heavy, Drake swallowed uneasily as he watched the dark aura around Shuyin become stronger with each passing moment.

'Damn it Shu... what the hell happened to you?' Drake thought, then the last words of the accursed mage rang in his head. _Prepare for Hell, now that the Dark Shuyin had awakened, once again..._

Suddenly Shuyin gathered up the darkness into him. He brought his arms together in his chest, then gave a mighty cry, expelling the energy all around him. The heroes, completely battered up by the previous fight, were tossed around like rag dolls. Only Fayt and Maria, who haven't really fought as much, were able to hold their ground against the forceful gale caused by the release of energy. Shuyin sighed, floating above a 50 feet crater he had just carved out.

Apparantely satisfied with what he had done, judging by the smirk on his face, he then turned to face his companions. Only, he didn't quite look like himself at all. The two red stripes across each of his cheeks and the purple streaks on his arms were glowing even brighter. His blue eyes were now completely red, or rather, burning. The shoulder-length red hair seemed different as well, no longer sleek but spiky. However, the biggest change was his expression. He was smiling. But it wasn't the kind of smile that put one at ease. It was cold, malicious, and foreboding.

'No... this can't be him, it just can't be... He feels... _different_,' Drake spoke to himself.

"Hey Shu! Are you alright?" Cliff's voice sounded in the air.

Shuyin turned his gaze to the Klausian, who had managed to get back on his feet at last, after having crashed his way out of a pile of rocks. Instead of an answer, Shuyin pointed at him with two fingers, from which a thin black light shot out. Cliff swiftly dodged it, and the light merely struck the huge boulder that was behind him. Cliff stared wide-eyed as the boulder in question suddenly shattered into thousands of tiny molecules. Shuyin began laughing, which was also quite out of character for him. Everyone began to get nervous. This guy seemed to have cracked or something. Suddenly, Maria dashed towards the laughing warrior and and grabbed his arms.

"Shu! What's wrong with you? Get a hold of yourself!" Maria pleaded.

Shuyin stopped laughing and looked down at the girl. Maria shivered slightly as those crimson orbs bore into her own eyes. Then, with an even colder smirk, one of his hands seized her throat and lifted her off from the ground. Everyone was shocked as Maria struggled to pry apart Shuyin's deathgrip. Without second thoughts, anyone who were still capable of moving charged at the apparently insane lanceman. Shuyin merely smirked again as he saw the group approach him, and tossed Maria straight at them.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing! Snap out of it, its not funny!" Fayt yelled.

Shuyin's laughter began to disappear, although that malicious smirk remained.

"Hehehe... At last... at last... After 14 years..." He seemed madly overjoyed by something, as he held his hands before his face.

"I'm free once again..."

Fayt and the others watched incredulously as the dark energy began to swivel again, gathering in Shuyin's raised right palm.

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"Say, just what was with Shu all of the sudden? I've never seen him like that before." Shienka inquired the senior Overseer as their ship slipped into warp space.

"Well, you two _are_ relatively new, so you didn't see him like that before. But there was one time when he... transformed I supposed. That was about 14 years ago." Selemoss looked slightly uncomfortable as he explained.

"What happended then?" Shienka caught the wary look on her superior.

"Sigh... You remember lord Kaiser and lady Karin?"

"Of course, the previous members of the Overseer, we WERE their apprentices you know." Selemoss ignored Shienka's child-like rudeness.

"Yes well, the three of us were sent on a mission to capture Zero back then as well... But..."

"But what? Wait... don't tell me... they...?" Selemoss nodded slowly.

"Shuyin changed into what you saw earlier... and killed them both, along with 500 hand-picked troops."

"That's... not possible... is it? By himself I mean." Shienka said after a lengthy pause, with an uneasy grin.

Meanwhile, Braz was in his quarter on the ship. He was still shivering slightly from that experience recently. He remembered Shuyin's eyes when he suddenly... changed. He detected no anger, no grief, no sadness, nothing. Only joy. The joy to destroy. He shivered involuntarily again as he recalled that moment.

"All I can say for sure now is, everyone, no, every THING on that planet, are as good as dead." Selemoss told Shienka.

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The heroes stared open mouthed as the darkness swirled like a miniature hurricane above the seemingly-possessed Shuyin. Drake couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something familiar with this current situation. The lanceman began to rise up towards the heavens, the darkness now becoming more compact at his hand. The energy became a small sphere, surrounded by purplish-black flame, hovering just above Shuyin's open palm held high above his head.

At that moment the realization struck Drake. The horrible image of a blackened field, shriveled corpses with their insides turned out, and dark purple flames flooded his vision from a memory of long ago.

"Oh, &#!"

"Hey! Watch your language!" He heard his sister snap at him.

"Never mind that, RUN!"

Shuyin's maniacal laughter reverbrated throughout the plains.

"Burn in agony! NECROSIS HOLOCAUST!" He flung the orb down towards the crew.

"Dammit! RENA!" The Raiyu siblings immediately performed the shield spell they had used against the Vendeeni ship before. The others gathered what power they had left and unleashed symbology, projectiles, energy balls, and what not at the purple orb, which was growing in size as it came closer to the ground.

Then the sphere landed. The next thing the people in the town of Peterny saw was a huge dome of black flames erupting out in the fields not so far away. Those who had witnessed the battle of Airyglyph castle long ago went stark white as they recognized the black fire.

The flames subsided almost immediately, although a light black mist permeated the air afterwards. Still laughing like a madman, the Black Lance slowly descended towards the center of the destruction, then gazed upon the people he had once called companions. Rena seemed to have passed out, while Roger was twitching on the ground, Albel was propped on one knee using his katana for support, Nel was on all fours with her arms shaking madly, Cliff was lying on his back next to Fayt and Maria, coughing out bits of blood. The two youths were gasping for breath while practically stuck in a huge chunk of rock, which had been part of a mountain just seconds ago, they had crashed into. However, Drake had taken the worst of it. He was still standing, but his legs were shaking furiously and both of his arms were limp by his side. His Serpent Blade lay discarded on the ground beside him, and he stared up at his past comrade, red liquid trickling down from the side of his mouth. The effort of trying to ward off the attack had been too much that Rena had passed out and the the others' attempts were simply nullified. Drake had somehow managed to hold out the brunt of the blast, sparing them all from the horrific fate that could've befallen them, but it had cost him dearly. He took an unsteady step forward, then his body went limp and collapsed.

For once, Shuyin's face held a different look, a look of disappointment.

"Tsk, I must have held back too much..." But then the murderous flame in his eyes, which were now narrow like a snake's, returned in a flash.

"Oh well, I guess it means I'll be able to have some more fun with you all. Then I'll pay a visit to the nearest town around here to have even more fun, hehehe..." Licking his lips in anticipation of the carnage, he looked around to see who he should have _fun_ with first. Not the unconscious ones, he thought, they won't scream and writhe in pain. Having made up his mind, he began advancing towards Cliff, who was the closest to him and still remained awake. As he raised on hand, black electricity coursed throughout the Klausians's body, who was flailing on the ground wildly screaming in pain. After a few seconds the lanceman lowered his hand, then swung his weapon, leaving a gash across Cliff's chest. Not too deep to be fatal, but still plenty painful as hell. Chuckling sadistically, he was about to hack off one arm when something struck his head from the side. He turned around and glared at whoever that had the nerve to strike him. Maria had her gun aimed at him while Fayt's hand was also up (Shuyin could sense the recent release of symbology). Snarling, he made a pushing motion towards them with his free hand, which shoved the two offenders deeper into the rubble as if an invisible wall was pressing against them, until the whole thing shattered into peaces. Sneering, Shuyin kicked aside Cliff's battered form and headed towards the pile of rock. Fayt groped for his sword nearby but Shuyin brought down a feet upon his wrist, causing another cry of pain. He was about to skewer him with his lance when another blast went whizzing past his face. Face contorted in fury, he jerked his head to the side to see Maria barely standing with one of her guns firmly in her hand. Contemptuously, he sprang and his fist struck her hard in the stomache. The pain was so intense that she couldn't even scream. The lanceman followed up by grasping her throat tightly and held her in front of him. He then pointed the lance directly at her heart. _No messing around with this one, she was far too annoying._ As he drew the lance back, tears dropped down from the girl's eyes as she mouthed 'Shuyin'.

There was a splatter of blood, but Maria felt no pain, at least, no new pain. Shuyin's hand still had her throat in a deathgrip and she was starting to feel lightheaded. Then what everyone (who still retained their consciousness) went wide-eyed at the sight in front of them. The blade of the lance was indeed embedded in flesh, but it was not that of the blue-haired girl. It had pierced through the arm that held Maria. Gasping in surprise and pain, Shuyin dropped the girl and backed away, dropping his lance and clutching his wounded arm.

"Gaah! Wha, what happened!" He was now completely hysterical as he stared at his bloodied limb. Suddenly he clutched his head and began screaming.

"ARGH! STOP IT! STAY DOWN YOU FOOL! DON'T INTERFERE!" He dropped down onto his knees and continued to scream and clawed at his head.

"WAAAUGH! WHY DO YOU RESIST YOU USELESS PIECE OF SCRAP! I WILL HANDLE THIS MY WAY, SO GET LOST!" He threw his head back and uttered on last outcry, "AGH, YOU WEAK-HEARTED FOOL!"

An enormous blast erupted around, no, from _within_ the shrieking warrior. A brilliant red light engulfed him as a miniature explosion took place, but affected only the lanceman himself. When the vision cleared, everyone had managed to dredge up enough strength to drag themselves to where the explosion took place. Rena and Roger regained consciousness while Nel and Albel had to help Drake and Cliff move.

There at the center of the wreckage sat Shuyin on his knees. The streaks on his face and other parts of his body began to disappear, and his eyes slowly changed back to its normal blue state. He lifted his head up and saw Maria who was clutching her throat staring back at him, tears marring her face. Shuyin raised one shaking hand towards her, and whispered "Ma...ri...a..." Then he fell face-first onto the earth, clearly knocked out. But what happened next was even more of a surprise. Small cracks began forming on his black armor and lance, until they eventually _shattered_ into fragments. Even the bracelet he wore changed, the golden markings faded and then disappeared altogether. In fact, all of the strange markings, on the lance and the armor, just vanished, leaving behind nothing but wrecked scraps of plain black metal.

Maria, despite Nel and Rena's insistence that she remained still due to her condition, trudged her way towards the fallen lanceman, her eyes filled with uncertainty and fear, before everything blacked out.


End file.
